


The Akuma Hunger Games

by secretagentspydetectiveninja



Series: The Akuma Hunger Games [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, LOTS of pigeon deaths, Time Travel, all the villains are in it i just couldn't be bothered to tag them all, au where hawk moth can akumatize more than one person for some reason, don't expect the love square because it's not in it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-30
Updated: 2017-01-22
Packaged: 2018-09-03 08:39:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 24
Words: 54,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8705356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secretagentspydetectiveninja/pseuds/secretagentspydetectiveninja
Summary: Hawk Moth, a huge Hunger Games fan, decides to create his own Hunger Games using his akumatized villains as tributes.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Don't worry if your fave dies in the first five minutes - there's time travel, so you'll get to see them again... (And I used a mishmash of French and English dub villain names depending on what I thought sounds cooler.)

Who would have guessed that Hawk Moth was secretly a giant fan of _The Hunger Games_? As impossible as it was to believe, it was true. He owned every book and film, plenty of merchandise, and was the author of several internet fanfics - though of course he would never admit all this to anyone. He would secretly stay up late at night, hunched over his kindle, poring over the books and trying to learn them off by heart. On weekends he would binge-watch the movies over and over until he could say all the lines with the actors themselves. Alone in his room he cosplayed as the characters, having created all the costumes by himself from scratch. His obsession was overwhelming, all-consuming, uncontrollable, so powerful that he couldn’t help it. He absolutely _had_ to bring this beautiful piece of fiction to life - and so the Akuma Hunger Games was born. 

“I have chosen you 26 villains to represent the 13 districts of Panem,” he said to his evil minions once everything was in order. He stood in his lair in front of his window, surrounded by butterflies as usual. The difference was that instead of overlooking Paris, his lair now overlooked a television display of the beautiful arena he had created. He communicated with his villains the way he always did - with the power of his own Miraculous. The villains themselves were all in separate rooms, getting ready to enter the Games.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Gamer said, frowning. “Panem has only 12 districts, or at least they used to before the first rebellion, but the Hunger Games only took place _after_ the 13th was supposedly destroyed, unless you’re implying that there were Hunger Games after the second rebellion, but the districts were dissolved-”

“Yes yes, I know that,” Hawk Moth snapped. “I couldn’t narrow it down to 24 villains, alright? _Anyway_ , two villains represent each district. If you look in the case files I have provided you with, you will see a list informing you which district each of you represent.”

“Hey, this is unfair!” Copycat scrunched up the piece of paper in his hand. “District 9? Are you kidding me? With _Piegon Guy_? Couldn’t you have put me in a career district? I’m super powerful! I’m basically Chat Noir!”

“I have my reasons, so stop complaining. Alright. In these case files you will also find character profiles I have written up for each villain, letting you know a little about who they are, what their powers are, who their civilian self is, that kind of thing. You have been provided with every profile except for your own.”

“And why is _that_?” Antibug asked, rather snootily.

“I thought it would be more interesting if you didn’t know how much information the others know about you. I will give you some time to read through the case files and prepare strategies. At 10 o clock I will transport you to the arena, and the Games will begin. Are there any questions?”

“Yeah, actually,” Timebreaker said, already flicking through the sheets of paper in her hands. “So according to these case files you’re going to make sure that little Puppeteer kid lives by magically taking her out of the arena if she’s at death’s door, but you’re perfectly okay with having the rest of us killed off? How is that fair?”

“Manon is just a child.”

“I’m only 15, you idiot, does that sound like adult age to you? If Puppeteer gets to live then so do the rest of us.”

Hawk Moth put his head in his hands. “This is a _Hunger Games_. You’re _villains_. You’re supposed to want to kill each other!”

“Yeah but it’s pretty uncool of you to play favourites like that just ‘cause one little kid’s a bit younger than us other kids,” Bubbler perked up. “Are you sure you don’t wanna make some loophole, dude? Y'know, to make it a little fairer?”

“Ugh, _fine_. While in the arena, if you at any point revert back to your civilian self, I’ll take you out of the Games. Is that better?”

“Sounds great,” Antibug said. She looked at her magic yoyo and smiled - she was the only one who could de-akumatize people, wasn’t she? That would mean everyone would want to keep her alive, to keep her on their side, so that they were at least guaranteed a way to live. That made her _special_. There was no way she could die.

“I have a question,” Kung Food said. “I have never seen or read _The Hunger Games_ ; I’m not quite sure of the rules.”

“It’s simple,” Hawk Moth said. “I put you all in an enclosed arena. You all try to kill each other. The last one surviving is the winner. Whenever someone dies, a cannon sound will be played so everyone knows. I can control the arena - the weather, the food supplies, the buildings, the plants… There really aren’t any other rules. Use your powers and do the best you can. Oh, and I may as well warn you, the first hour or so of the Games are usually very gory, and very … _deadly_.” He smiled maliciously, gazing through the window at the centre of the arena below him. He couldn’t wait to watch his villains tear each other apart down there.

“Out of interest, _why_ exactly are you doing this?” Lady Wifi asked.

“Because every single one of you is an incompetent failure - you were all outsmarted by Ladybug and Chat Noir. I gave you superpowers, and you let me down. This is your punishment.” _And I just really love the Hunger Games_ , he thought to himself.

Timebreaker clenched her fists. Punishment, huh? For being unable to defeat the two most powerful people in Paris? She decided then and there that she would win the Games, just so she could come back and punch Hawk Moth in the face. What a jerk.

“Any other questions?”

“I have a few,” Gamer said. He cleared his throat and pushed up his glasses. “First of all, will bodies be removed from the arena after death?”

“Uh… no.”

“So I can zap them for more energy? Sweet. Also, will there be a Cornucopia with weapons and food, like in the original Hunger Games?”

“No.”

“Fair enough. Okay, how many pigeons and animals will there be? If Animan turns into a pigeon, will Mr Pigeon be able to control him? Will Animan be able to speak to Fang? What will you do if Puppeteer dies before you can take her out of the arena? Can Evillustrator erase people? If Timebreaker kills animals and pigeons, does that give her energy to-”

“Oh would you look at the time, I need to go do something, feel free to chat amongst yourselves till I get back.” Hawk Moth hastily switched off his communication channel.

Each villain’s room contained a telephone that they could use to call each other in order to make alliances if they wished. Of course, this put Horrificator and Mime, the non-speaking villains, at a disadvantage - though neither of them were particularly keen on teaming up with anyone anyway. Gamer repeatedly tried to call back Hawk Moth to get answers to his questions, but for some reason no one was picking up. Meanwhile, some of the other villains began making plans as 10 o clock ticked nearer.

“We should team up!” Copycat said down the phone to Antibug. “We’ll be like Ladybug and Chat Noir!”

“I am far better than _Ladybug_ ,” Antibug said, scowling.

“No way, Ladybug’s the best.”

“How _dare_ you? Now there’s no way I’m teaming up with you. Goodbye.” She started to put the phone down.

“Wait! I meant… if you really think you’re better than Ladybug, why don’t you prove it? Me and you, we can make a team, and destroy everyone else!”

“Hmmm…” Well, Copycat’s Cataclysm ability would certainly be helpful. And _if_ he got too annoying, she could always just kill him. “Fine. We can be a team for at least the first day. But if you turn out to be an incompetent loser, I’ll end you.”

“Fair enough,” Copycat said. “I’d probably do the same to you if you were … I mean, I’m sure you’re not incompetent, but … uh … anyway, truce for the first day. So, since you can’t read your own profile entry, do you want me to read what Hawk Moth says about you?”

“First I’d like to know exactly what he says about my _powers_ ,” Antibug said. “If I use Anti-Charm, it’s 5 minutes till I detransform, right? What happens then?”

“Okay, it says here: _"Antibug uses Anti-Charm instead of Lucky Charm, and it is weaker. The item it gives is not guaranteed to fix the situation, and after throwing it in the air it will only repair minor local damage and time paradoxes, it cannot heal injuries or bring back the dead like Lucky Charm. Antibug can also purify akumas using the yoyo, just like Ladybug. Similar to Copycat, there will be a cooldown period 5 minutes after using Anti-Charm.”_ Uh, what does it mean by cooldown period? Can you read my entry?“

Antibug flicked to the appropriate page in the case files. _"5 minutes after using Cataclysm, Copycat will enter a 5 minute "cooldown period” in which he is stripped of all powers other than appearance. Once this is over he will be able to use his powers again.“_

"Thanks, that makes sense,” said Copycat. “By the way, I don’t know you well as Chloé Bourgeois but Hawk Moth was really mean about you! Let’s see … _"Selfish and cruel, she bullies her classmates at every opportunity and is widely disliked to the point of being the cause of an astonishing number of akumatizations…”_ Is that true?“

"Of course it’s not!” Antibug shrieked. “Why did he say that? Everyone loves me! _I’m_ the victim here - I get attacked by akuma villains almost every day…”

“What does Hawk Moth say about me?”

“Well he was nice about _you!_ He calls you _"a young sculptor with a great admiration for Ladybug and prone to jealousy”_! Why was he so rude about me then?“

"I don’t know. Hey, have you looked at the arena map yet? There’s this thing in the Northern Sector called the Power Tower, and it says some villains have special abilities here … Let’s have a look…”

“I already looked at all that, it doesn’t concern either of us at all,” Antibug said, waving her hand.

“Us two may not have any extra powers up there, but others might. Ooh, look! _"If Climatika can get on top of the Power Tower then she will be able to create a cyclone.”_ I’m pretty sure that concerns us! If she can do that, we’re dead!“

"Alright. Who else has special powers up there?”

“Um, let’s see… _"If Darkblade can reach the top of the Power Tower and raise his flag there, he can make a cloud that converts everyone in the arena into a knight when it touches them…”_ We’ll have to keep an eye on him then. Oh, and this one too. _“If Princess Fragrance reaches the top of the Power Tower she can spray her perfume across the entire arena.”_ That won’t be good.“

"Don’t worry, none of them are anywhere near as competent as me,” Antibug said. “We’ll have no issue taking them down.”

“I hope you’re right about that.” Copycat looked down at the case files in his hand. There were so many other villains, all with so many amazing powers. How could he possibly survive, even teamed up with Antibug?


	2. Chapter 2

It was almost 10 o clock. Only a few alliances had formed, and even those were tenuous. Hawk Moth had been tapping in on some of the conversations and it sounded like these were going to be very interesting Games indeed. Who was most likely to win? Well, there was Pharaoh, the villain who was practically a god. His powers were limitless. If only he would stop acting rashly and underestimating his opponents! Who else? Timebreaker, of course. Not only was she quick and ruthless, but her time travel powers could give her an easy win if she used them well. And then there was Gamer, an unstoppable killing machine. Oh, how interesting it was going to be to see all these great villains pitted against each other!

Only two minutes to go now. Hawk Moth re-opened his communication channel. “I hope you are all ready! You will shortly be transported to the arena where there will be a 60 second countdown, then the Games will begin. Remember, the winner will forever be in my good books. Perhaps I will give you another chance to fight Ladybug and Chat Noir, and this time you will succeed!”

Timebreaker kicked the wall. Why should she bother fighting Ladybug and Chat Noir again, just for Hawk Moth? What kind of victory prize was that?

Hawk Moth waited, holding his breath, his hand poised above the button that would send 25 people to their doom and 1 to victory. Just a few seconds left. He quickly glanced at the rest of lair - yes, everything was ready. All the cameras and microphones were set up. It was all in place.

The timer on his watch reached zero - it was time to send the tributes into the arena. Hawk Moth pressed the button and the villains vanished from their rooms, reappearing on their designated circles in the very centre of the arena. Now just 60 seconds to go until the killing began.

The villains looked around, taking in everything they could before the start of the Games. The arena (or what they could see of it) looked very much like downtown Paris - there were buildings, roads and cars everywhere. In fact, it seemed like the only things missing were the people who were usually walking around the city - the villains were the only humans around. However, there did seem to be a lot of pigeons. They all sat still, waiting, on the roofs of buildings, on street lights, on cars, on the sides of the road. They watched the villains with their blank black eyes. In the distance to the north were a large number of skyscrapers, including one extremely tall one. This must have been the Power Tower that Hawk Moth mentioned in his case files.

_Hawk Moth spent all this time and money making this giant arena, just to make our deaths more entertaining?_ Timebreaker narrowed her eyes. _That’s it. I have to win. I have to win so that I can kill him._

Hawk Moth’s voice rang out across the arena. “Let the Akuma Hunger Games begin!”

Almost immediately, the pigeons rose into the air in swarms so thick it was difficult to see. Mr Pigeon blew on his bird whistle, and the pigeons began diving everywhere beak-first, trying to tear as much skin off the opponents as possible. Feathers were flying everywhere and no one could move without running into an angry pigeon every few seconds. It was complete chaos.

Volpina ducked behind a nearby car and played a little tune on her flute, creating wave upon wave of illusion clones of herself. They all ran off in different directions, some being swiped into dust by the pigeons straightaway, others lasting a bit longer. All in all, it made everything even more confusing.

Back in his lair, Hawk Moth was cursing himself for putting so many pigeons in there. He could barely see what was going on. Wait - what was that? Pigeons floating in the air, still as statues? He zoomed in on a camera and got a closer look. It was Timebreaker. She was using her powers to freeze pigeons in time, giving herself more energy. She skated around so fast that he had to keep refocusing the camera to keep an eye on where she was.

Timebreaker herself was feeling full of the usual akuma rage and hatred, and it drove her to be as ruthless as possible. She tried to find some opponents to kill, but where were they all? These darn pigeons kept getting in the way, she couldn’t see a thing. Suddenly an arrow whizzed past her shoulder. She looked up to see Dark Cupid in the sky, flying above the mass of pigeons and shooting arrows down into the fray. She chuckled to herself - the arrows only caused people to be filled with hate, which she already was. It wouldn’t even make a difference if she got hit. Why didn’t Dark Cupid just fly away and save himself?

From somewhere to her right she heard what sounded like … rock music? Must be Guitar Villain. She dove out of the way, and just in time, as a stream of lethal soundwaves zoomed past her. The pigeons in the vicinity scattered and she looked around to see Guitar Villain running towards her, strumming at his guitar furiously. From above, Dark Cupid swooped down to get a closer shot. He flew towards Timebreaker but stayed out of reach of her deathly touch. The next thing he knew, he was being battered by one of Guitar Villain’s shockwaves and he fell to the ground.

_Time to kill two birds with one stone_ , thought Timebreaker. She skated round behind Guitar Villain and quickly froze him in time. His guitar stopped emitting shockwaves and Dark Cupid tried to fly back up again, but Timebreaker was too quick for him. She dug the wheels of her skates into his wings and then tapped him, freezing him in place. How satisfying! _Who’s the fastest now, huh Kim?_

By this time Guitar Villain had disappeared and the pigeons were closing in again. Through a gap in all the feathers she could see what looked like Mr Pigeon, up in the sky, being carried away somewhere by his loyal bird friends. And was that an eagle with him too? Looked like he must have teamed up with Animan then.

Timebreaker looked around, trying to find some other villains to kill. To her left she saw the crowd of pigeons thinning. Skating closer, she could see now that it was Pixelator, zapping pigeons away with his magic camera. He would be an easy kill, as long as she was quick about it. She was just about to get nearer when she was blasted backwards by a gust of icy wind. The pigeons cleared and she saw Climatika there, laughing manically and twirling her umbrella. Pixelator got to his feet and tried to zap Climatika, but she jumped aside. Then she pointed her umbrella at him and, with another mighty laugh, shot a barrage of razor-sharp icicles at him. They sliced off most of the skin on his face. He fell to his knees, blood spilling onto the ground around him. Climatika laughed again and shot one more icicle, impaling Pixelator through the chest.

Timebreaker didn’t stay to watch any longer - she skated as fast as she could in the opposite direction, hoping Climatika wouldn’t come after her. With Timebreaker, at least when she killed people, she didn’t do it quite so gruesomely…

She was suddenly sent flying backwards by another shockwave. Waving the pesky pigeons out of her face she saw Pharaoh, about to clap his hands to make more shockwaves. Bubbler was running towards him, bubble wand out and ready.

Pharaoh was certainly extremely powerful. It would be better to kill him sooner rather than later. And yet … Timebreaker hesitated. Killing classmates and random people was one thing. Killing a _family member_ was something else entirely.

Pharaoh clapped his hands together and sent the last of the nearby pigeons out of the area. He also sent Bubbler into a nearby brick wall, and judging by the snapping sound and his lack of movement, Timebreaker guessed he must have broken his neck. No doubt about it, Pharaoh was powerful and had to be stopped. She stood up to go chase him down … then turned around and skated away. No matter how angry she was, there was no way she was killing her own brother. Hopefully someone else would do it. Climatika was still around, right? Maybe she could do it instead?

Timebreaker skated around some more, looking for more villains. The pigeons were thinning out everywhere now so she could see more. In the street next to her she saw Gamer and Reflekta trying to zap each other, and Jackady inside a building throwing cards out of an open window, trying to hit someone. Mime was standing at the other end of the street, just watching and waiting. He looked almost entertained by the battle. Unfortunately for him, Gamer spotted him and zapped him before he could even blink.

Timebreaker decided to take down Gamer another time - it was just too risky right now. She skated further and came across the lifeless body of … well, it was probably Kung Food, but it had been pecked by pigeons so badly that it barely resembled him anymore. Maybe the food in his bag had attracted the birds to him. In any case, he wouldn’t be a threat any longer.

There was a bright flash, followed by a distant rumbling sound. Obviously Climatika must be up to something again. Judging by the gap between the lightning and the thunder she was probably far enough away to not be a threat. But wait - which direction was that coming from? Timebreaker skated into the nearest building and made her way to the roof where she could see more of the arena. She waited for another lightning flash and sure enough, a few seconds later there was one, followed by more thunder. In the distance she could see a spot in the city where dark clouds were forming. Obviously that must be Climatika’s location. Looking further in that direction Timebreaker could see the skyscrapers of the Northern Sector, including the Power Tower right on the edge of the arena. Was Climatika trying to get there? Didn’t it say in the case files that once reaching the top of the Power Tower, Climatika would be able to create a cyclone that could affect the entire arena?

_There’s no way I’m letting that happen!_ Timebreaker skated back out onto the street and zoomed towards the Northern Sector as fast as she could. True, Climatika was a dangerous opponent and trying to kill her could be fatal. But if she managed to reach the top of that tower, there would be no chance of anyone else winning at all. She had to be stopped _now_.

As Timebreaker got closer and closer, the air around her grew colder. There were icicles hanging off the sides of nearby buildings, and the wind through the streets and the ice on the ground was enough to make it less like rollerskating and more like _ice_ skating. She followed the frequent lightning flashes and eventually made it to where they seemed to be coming from. Timebreaker could now hear Climatika’s laughter ringing out, louder than the wind. But she couldn’t see her! Where was that villain?

A shower of hail fell from above. Timebreaker looked up but still couldn’t see anything. Suddenly she heard voices coming from behind her. She quickly zoomed into a nearby building and waited. Princess Fragrance came round the corner followed by Volpina. She used her perfume gun to propel herself upwards towards the top of the building but quickly came back down again. “It’s no good, they’re too dangerous,” she said to Volpina. “Hopefully they will kill each other off. In the meantime we should try to get to the top of the Power Tower so we can take over this kingdom. Reflekta told me my powers are magnified up there. I’m sure Darkblade will be heading there too - we need to stop him. After all, I’m the princess here and he’s the knight, he really should be bowing down to me! Let’s go.”

“At your service, Princess Fragrance,” sang Volpina, curtseying. They ran off in another direction.

Timebreaker thought about going after them, but decided against it. Those two would probably keep Darkblade occupied while she took out Climatika. Then she could just go after them later. After all, she knew where they were headed now. And thank goodness Volpina was under control - having her running around messing with everyone through illusions would make everything much more dangerous.

What had Princess Fragrance meant by “Hopefully they will kill each other off”? Was Climatika battling someone? Timebreaker crept up to the top floor of the building and had a peek out of the window. Now she could see what Princess Fragrance was talking about. Up on the rooftops of the nearby buildings, Climatika was hopping around, shooting ice and wind and hail and the occasional lightning strike, clearly trying her hardest to hit someone. Timebreaker couldn’t see who the opponent was, but evidently they were putting up an extremely good fight - she could see Climatika having to fend off all sorts of weird flying weapons, from giant spinning saws to huge boxing gloves. Timebreaker skated to the other side of the building and had a look through the other window. Now she saw Climatika’s opponent - it was Evillustrator, up on the roof of another building. Somehow he was managing to draw so fast that not only was he managing to defend himself against many of her icy attacks, he also nearly hit her with his own weapons quite a few times.

Well, taking down Climatika would be easy, considering she was so distracted. But in plain sight of Evillustrator? Not so easy. What would be ideal would be to kill both these villains right now, since they were clearly too powerful to leave alive for long. But that was such a big risk. Would it be a risk that would pay off? Maybe it _would_. After all, these were two of the most formidable villains, both in the same place, distracted, very early on in the Games. She might not get another opportunity like this.

_Let’s do it_ , thought Timebreaker. She went back down to the street and then climbed the building she had last seen Climatika floating over. Then, leaping out onto the roof, she braced the winds and skated as fast as she could towards Climatika. Climatika turned around and saw her, but too late. Before she could even lift her umbrella Timebreaker had jumped up and managed to hit her, freezing her in time and space. Immediately the wind stopped and the air felt warmer. The clouds above began to disperse and the sun shone through brightly, straight into Evillustrator’s eyes. Seizing this opportunity, Timebreaker leapt across the roofs and managed to freeze him too.

Hawk Moth chuckled evilly to himself. What a brilliant start to his precious Hunger Games. Already eight villains were dead, and there would probably be more soon to come. There seemed to be no more battles going on anymore, so this seemed like a good place to call the end of the bloodbath. He pressed the cannon button eight times in a row to let his villains know that now there were only eighteen of them left.


	3. Chapter 3

Timebreaker was sitting on the edge of the roof, swinging her feet above the street far below her. Eight cannons. And she had been responsible for four of them! At this rate there was no doubt, she would _definitely_ be the winner. After all, she had already managed to take down two of the most powerful villains, so the rest would be a piece of cake. Why not take some time out to relax and celebrate her upcoming victory? She slapped a nearby pigeon out of the air and watched the lights on her skates become even brighter as they absorbed the bird’s energy. She’d done so well and hadn’t even used her time travel powers yet. She didn’t even _need_ them.

What would life be like after winning? Well, first things first, she’d have to go punch Hawk Moth in the face. After that, well, wouldn’t everyone be so impressed that she managed to win a Hunger Games? Not Kim, obviously. He was dead. It wasn’t like anyone would miss him, though, they all hated his stupid boasting and challenges. They’d probably all thank her for getting rid of him. And Guitar Villain gone too - that was Jagged Stone, wasn’t it? A shame really, since he was a very good musician. One of her favourites, in fact. No more new music from him then.

Who else was gone now? Bubbler. That was Nino. Adrien Agreste certainly wouldn’t be pleased about that. _At least I’m not the one who killed him,_ Timebreaker thought. Pixelator was gone too - Timebreaker neither knew nor cared who that was. Just some random person, probably. Mime was also dead - Mylène’s dad. He worked at the school, didn’t he? Well, they’d just have to hire someone else. Kung Food was gone - that was Marinette’s uncle. She wouldn’t be happy about that. Nor would the cooking community - Timebreaker had heard that Wang Cheng was a legendary chef, or something like that. Climatika was dead too … It didn’t matter, Aurore wasn’t even in her class. Evillustrator … well, it wasn’t like Nathaniel ever spoke anyway, probably no one would even notice he was gone.

Yes, it wouldn’t be so bad with those people gone. Sure, she’d probably feel worse about it once detransformed back into Alix, but hopefully she’d get over it. It’s not like there was anyone in the class she cared about, after all, she was barely even _friends_ with most people. Anyway, it was all Hawk Moth’s fault in the first place. He was the one making them all do this, enjoying watching them all die.

That was right - if Timebreaker survived, it would mean the rest were all dead. (Except maybe Puppeteer.) What would it be like, having to walk into an almost empty classroom every morning? Having Adrien and Marinette glare at you from across the room, unable to forgive you for killing all their friends? What would it be like to come home every day to a quiet house, devoid of the sound of Jalil’s voice? To walk around a Parisian park and see the empty bench where Mr Ramier always used to sit, feeding his pigeons? To fear crime at every corner because the head of the police force was dead? To realize the Ladyblog was never going to update ever again, no matter what adventures Ladybug and Chat Noir went on? To know that all of this was because _you killed them?_

A sudden surge of anger ran through Timebreaker. She wanted to strangle Hawk Moth, to stab him, to burn him, _anything_. How could he do this - forcibly take her away from her life as Alix, where she was perfectly happy, and turn her into a killing machine for his own sick entertainment? Even winning would be no consolation, knowing how empty and awful everything would turn out to be once the Games were over. Sure, Timebreaker might enjoy all the killing, but she knew that once she was Alix again she’d be mortified at what she’d done. That’s what had happened last time, when she was akumatized after her watch broke, and that time none of the terrible things she did even had permanent consequences. The aftermath of these Games would be far, far worse…

Somewhere in her memory something stirred. It had been quite a while since she’d read any of the actual Hunger Games books, but she suddenly remembered something. A phrase. _“When you’re in the arena… You just remember who the enemy is.”_ The enemy … It was none of her opponents. They were all in the same boat as her. No, the real enemy was Hawk Moth. He shouldn’t be allowed to do this. There was no way she was letting him get away with it. She had to do _something_. But what? How could she get out of the arena without playing by his rules? How could anyone?

_“ While in the arena, if you at any point revert back to your civilian self, I’ll take you out of the Games…”_ That was it. If she could somehow turn the other villains back to normal without killing them, Hawk Moth would _have_ to let them survive and go free. Not only that, but it would hurt him more than any physical attack would - knowing that after all the work he put into making these Games a reality, it backfired on him. But how was she supposed to do that? She wasn’t Ladybug, she couldn’t de-akumatize people…

_Antibug_. She needed Antibug on her side. Somehow, she needed to persuade the most selfish villain to save everyone else. How was she going to do that? And de-akumatizing everyone would be a lot more effort than just killing them all. How could this plan even begin to work? Eight people were already dead anyway - was there even any point? Should she just let it be? Just try to win the Games normally?

The lights on her skates caught her eye. She took a closer look. Wow - she had killed plenty of pigeons and several powerful supervillains. She had enough energy to go back in time all the way to the start of the bloodbath if she didn’t wait too long. And if she went back to the bloodbath … perhaps she could prevent those deaths from occurring? Find Antibug and get her on her side? Try out her plan? Well, why not have a go. She had nothing to lose. After all, she was still one of the villains with the best chances of winning the Games normally, so even if her plan didn’t work then she could just go back to killing everyone. And _if_ it worked, she’d not only guarantee a much happier rest of her life as Alix, but would also get sweet revenge on Hawk Moth for creating this nightmare of a situation in the first place. At the very least it would be a fun challenge.

Timebreaker stood up and brushed the feathers off her suit. She looked around to check no one was in her way. Not a soul. Then she skated across the roofs as fast as she could, using her momentum to leap across the gaps, until she was going fast enough to use her time travel powers.  Once she was back in the centre of the city, she activated her skates. With a flash, she was gone.


	4. Chapter 4

“Let the Akuma Hunger Games begin!” The pigeons rose up into the air. Timebreaker arrived from the future a few seconds later, just in front of her younger self. She was just about to start explaining her plan when the younger Timebreaker suddenly punched her right in the front of the helmet.

“Hey, what was that for? I’m you! From the future!”

“Oh, I’m sorry! I thought you must be one of Volpina’s illusions! I was just trying to… Anyway, what are you doing here? Do we win the Games?”

“Not quite.” Timebreaker no. 1 took her younger self by the arm and dragged her to a safer area behind a nearby building. “Listen - I have a plan, and it’s important, okay? We need to make sure no one dies. I know what you’re thinking, that sounds really stupid. But trust me, I’ve thought it through and _saving everyone will annoy Hawk Moth more than punching him in the face_. I mean, we can punch him in the face later too, but if everyone survives, that will _really_ hurt him. We need to get Antibug on our side and convince her to de-akumatize the others instead of killing them.”

“Sounds like a lot of effort,” Timebreaker no. 2 said, rolling her eyes.

“Look, imagine we kill everyone and win the Games. Hawk Moth turns us back into Alix. We go to school - everyone gone, except Marinette and Adrien, who’ll probably hate us forever. We go home - no Jalil. Go anywhere, do anything - consequences. See? It’s gonna suck even if we win. Just trust me. I’ll explain properly later, if you want. We have to stop the bloodbath deaths first.”

“Oh, fine. What do you need me to do?”

“Dark Cupid is going to be attacked by Guitar Villain at any moment, somewhere over there near that building that looks like Marinette’s bakery. Last time I killed them both. This time go make sure they both survive. I’ll meet you back here in a few minutes - I’ll try and find Antibug and get her to team up with us.”

“Okay, let’s roll.”

The two Timebreakers skated off in opposite directions. The younger one headed towards the bakery lookalike building and sure enough, she heard rock music coming from somewhere towards her right. It had to be Guitar Villain. Skating further ahead she saw Dark Cupid up in the sky above her, trying to shoot arrows at her but constantly hitting pigeons instead.

“Uh, those arrows are pretty useless!” she called up to him. “I’m kind of _akumatized_ right now, so I already hate everyone… Why don’t you just go find some twigs and make some _actual_ arrows?”

She wasn’t sure if he’d heard her over the screeching pigeons and their flapping feathers, not to mention the rock music that was getting louder and louder, but in any case he flew away. Good, hopefully he’d stay out of trouble. Now to make sure Guitar Villain would be okay. Timebreaker turned around and headed straight towards the source of the rock music before suddenly realizing that she had no idea how she was supposed to save him. Her speciality was _killing people_ , after all, not _saving_ them.

The pigeons in front of her suddenly scattered and something large flew overhead, so fast that the air blast pushed her backwards slightly. She looked up to see … a _dragon???_ Oh yes, Guitar Villain’s dragon, Fang. She quickly dived out of the way as Fang flew past again, spewing green flames from his mouth. The charred corpses of dozens of pigeons fell to the ground.

_That dragon needs to die,_ thought Timebreaker. _He’s not one of the villains I need to save, so surely it’s okay._ She was about to go and kill Fang when she saw Guitar Villain running towards him. He jumped onto his precious pet dragon, and together they flew away into the distance, killing more pigeons along the way.

Meanwhile the older Timebreaker had her hands full trying to find Antibug. She narrowly avoided being crushed by Stone Heart and managed to trip over at least five pigeons, and there was still no sign of Antibug anywhere. She skated around a corner and saw three Volpinas standing in front of her, giggling and holding their flutes up like swords. Without thinking, Timebreaker swiped her arm through all three of them and they faded into dust. Just illusions. But then … surely that meant the real Volpina must be around there somewhere?

Timebreaker skated down the street as fast as she could, destroying any and all Volpina clones she came across. Of course, the pigeons did half of that job for her. There must have been hundreds of clones walking around - could Volpina really not think of any _other_ illusions?

There, behind a car, crouched another Volpina, playing her flute. She was facing away from Timebreaker and hadn’t seemed to notice her. Could it be the real one? Timebreaker skated up to her and tried to swipe her arm through, but Volpina suddenly turned around and smacked her with the flute, causing her to fall over. It seemed this Volpina really _was_ the real one.

Timebreaker stood up and skated after Volpina, who had run halfway down the street by now. It wasn’t difficult to catch up. Without wasting any time, Timebreaker punched Volpina in the head, making sure not to absorb any of her time energy. Volpina fell to the ground, unconscious.

Almost at the same time, Antibug swung down onto the street in front of them. She crouched, ready to attack, swinging her yoyo around in the way she’d seen Ladybug do during battles.

“Chill, I’m not gonna attack you,” Timebreaker said. She looked down at Volpina… now where was the akuma hidden? She picked up the flute and tossed it at Antibug. “Here, de-akumatize her.”

“Or, I could just kill her,” Antibug snarled.

“Or, I could easily kill you if you take another step closer, so do what I say.”

“Fine. But as soon as Copycat gets here, we’re totally gonna kill you.” Antibug snapped the flute in half. “Hey, where’s the akuma?”

Timebreaker looked back at Volpina. No, it wasn’t the flute, was it? Maybe it was the necklace. She took the necklace and threw it to Antibug, who crushed it in her fist. Sure enough, a little black butterfly flew out.

“Time to de-evilize!” Antibug called out, trying to sound as much like Ladybug as possible. She swung her yoyo around and caught the akuma in it. “Gotcha!” Then she opened the yoyo and let the purified butterfly go free, bidding it farewell with a little wave. “Bye bye little butterfly!” She suddenly realized that Timebreaker was laughing at her. “Hey, why are you laughing? What’s so funny?”

“Please don’t say any of that cheesy stuff next time, okay? Only Ladybug can pull that off.”

“You’re right, I need my _own_ catchphrases, ones that are way better than Ladybug’s.”

Volpina stirred and opened her eyes before transforming into her civilian self, Lila. She looked around confused for a few seconds, after which she disappeared from the arena.

“You know, Lila’s going to love you now,” Timebreaker said to Antibug. “When you win the Games and make it out of here, she’s going to be forever in your debt because you saved her life here. She’s always telling stories of her adventures with famous people, well now she’ll tell everyone stories about you…”

“Yes, she will, won’t she?” Antibug said, smiling smugly.

“Wow… just imagine if you saved _everyone_. Then they’d _all_ love you. You’d prove Hawk Moth wrong. Did you know, in the case files, he was really rude about you? Calling you selfish and cold-hearted?”

“I know! How could he? When I’m clearly such an amazing person?”

Timebreaker tried not to gag. “Exactly. Such an … amazing person. Well, I bet Hawk Moth would be really mad if you ruined his stupid Hunger Games by de-akumatizing everyone rather than killing them. It would serve him right for being so rude. And when you’re the winner in the end, you’d have so many admirers… as opposed to if you won by having killed everyone, in which case there would be no one left to admire you.” Ugh, what nonsense. In no universe could anyone ever admire a person like Chloé Bourgeois.

Antibug stepped a little closer. “Say… Timebreaker? That’s your name, right? You seem to hate Hawk Moth as much as I do… so… do you think you want to … you know… team up maybe? Help me de-akumatize everyone?”

Timebreaker pretended to sound surprised. “That’s a great idea! If everyone survives, later on when we’re back to our civilian selves we can all team up and go beat up Hawk Moth!”

“It’s gonna be awesome!”

“Oh yeah, and I’m from the future so I already know who died in the original bloodbath. I know exactly who we need to save and where to find them. My younger self’s helping out too.”

From somewhere to the side was the sound of a sneeze.

“Copycat, is that you?” Antibug called out. Copycat walked out of a nearby building and into view, rubbing his nose.

“For some reason I just can’t stop sneezing around the pigeons,” he said, followed by another sneeze.

“Chat Noir’s allergic to feathers, duh,” Antibug said. “Anyway, there’s a new plan and we’re teaming up with Timebreaker. We have to-”

“I know, I overheard everything,” he said. “But next time, how about you ask me before you go making any new plans? Since we’re teammates and all?”

Antibug rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

“Okay, anyway,” Timebreaker said quickly, “Bubbler and Pixelator are going to die any minute now. We can focus on de-akumatizing them later, for now let’s just make sure they stay alive. Antibug, you go over to that bit just northeast of the centre of the arena, where those brick buildings are, and save Bubbler from Pharaoh. Copycat, go to the patch of trees near the place that looks like the Dupain-Cheng bakery and get Pixelator to go somewhere else. And then _get the heck out of there_ , because Climatika will turn up and… she’s _sadistic_. Trust me, you do not want to die by her hands. Meanwhile I’ll go find my slightly younger self and we’ll stop the deaths of Mime and Kung Food. We’ll meet back at the centre of the arena.”

“Sounds good.” The three villains split up and went their separate ways.

Antibug used her yoyo to swing across rooftops and quickly found Pharaoh down below, who was using his shockwave clap to get those pesky pigeons out of his face. Sure enough, Bubbler was down there too, running towards Pharaoh, about to wave his bubble wand.

Antibug threw her yoyo at Bubbler and it wrapped around him, tying him up. She pulled him aside just as Pharaoh clapped his hands again, making a giant shockwave that made the buildings shake. He noticed Bubbler dangling in midair and started shooting time bubbles at him. Well, at least that was less dangerous than shockwaves. Antibug retracted the yoyo string and let Bubbler fall to the ground. She watched as the two villains shot magic bubbles at each other. They aimed a few her way too, but she could easily avoid them.

The next thing she knew, Pharaoh and Bubbler had both got trapped in each other’s bubbles. At the same time. Somehow.

Antibug jumped down from the roof and stood in front of them. “Hey, you guys are losers!” she laughed. “ _Bubbles_ , seriously? What are you, like, 2 year olds? You know, even if I _was_ going to kill anyone, you two aren’t even worth it…” She ran off, still giggling to herself.

“Psst. Hey. Dude.” Bubbler waved at Pharaoh from inside his time bubble, though from the outside it looked like he was going in slow motion. “Your shockwave clap can get us out of these bubbles, right?”

“I would rather wait until you run out of air before I free myself,” Pharaoh said.

“But, uh, won’t _you_ run out of air too? Isn’t it better to just free us both now and get this fight over with?”

“I’ll wait until the end of the bloodbath, when it’s safer,” Pharaoh replied. “And then I will kill you, don’t worry. Or maybe make you into a mummy. That way, once I win these Games, you can help me with the ritual to bring back my precious Nefertiti from the dead.”

Bubbler blinked. “I have, like, _no_ idea what you’re talking about. Man, grownups are so _weird_.” He sat down. “But fine, I’ll wait.”

 

Meanwhile, Copycat ran around trying to find the building that looked like the bakery. That bakery… wasn’t it the one next to the park where the mayor had placed the beautiful statue of Ladybug and Chat Noir that he had sculpted? Why would Hawk Moth bother creating a replica of the bakery here in the arena but not the brilliant statue? _Rude_.

He sneezed and waved the feathers out of his face. Towards the left he could see what looked like trees, and there were fewer pigeons over there - probably Pixelator was somewhere nearby then. Copycat went over there, holding his baton out, ready to strike if he needed to. Sure he wasn’t allowed to kill anyone, but he could still knock them out, right?

There was a zapping sound from behind him and he leapt aside just in time to avoid a stream of pixels. Turning around he saw Pixelator there, grinning nastily, getting ready to zap again.

“Ooh look! Guitar Villain!” Copycat called out, pointing towards the tops of the trees.

“You mean Jagged Stone?” Pixelator’s face lit up. He turned and looked into the woods behind him. “Where?”

“Uh, I just saw him flying on his dragon into the forest! Hey, maybe if you start chasing him now you can get a picture and autograph-” He didn’t even need to finish his sentence as Pixelator was already gone.

_That was easy,_ he thought to himself, followed by another sneeze. Evidently the pigeons were returning. And was it getting… colder? He shivered. The sky above him - or what he could see of it through the pigeons - was clouding over. The wind seemed to be picking up too, blowing more feathers in his face, and it was icy cold. And then he heard the sound of high-pitched laughter, coming from somewhere behind him. Climatika.

Copycat ran as fast as he could back to the bakery building and then used his baton to propel himself up to the balcony on top of it. From there, looking down, he could see her. She was blasting pigeons away with ice shards left right and centre, sometimes blowing them away by pointing her umbrella straight at them. He saw her looking around every few seconds, clearly trying to find someone to kill, but no one was close enough. Once she had managed to kill most of the pigeons in the area, she floated upwards, looking towards the Northern Sector. Copycat crouched and hid behind a chair, hoping she wouldn’t spot him. He knew he didn’t stand much of a chance against her on his own. The only problem with hiding out of sight was that he couldn’t see her anymore. He just held his breath and hoped she wouldn’t come near… That was when a feather landed on his nose.

“ACHOO!” He covered his mouth but it was too late. Peering over the top of the chair he saw that Climatika had turned to look, and she saw him. So much for hiding. He burst through the balcony door and into the bakery building, running down the stairs at top speed. From somewhere nearby he could hear Climatika laughing to herself again. To his horror, her voice was getting louder.

“Where are you, Copycat?” she called, laughing again. Her voice sounded echoey - maybe she was already inside the building too. “I know you’re the one who sneezes at feathers. Don’t think you can run away from me.”

Copycat was knocked off his feet by a blast of cold air. He fell to the bottom of the stairs and landed in an undignified heap. Without stopping to register the pain he got up and ran out of the nearest door - just in time too, as a large, pointed shard of ice embedded itself in the ground where his head had been a split-second earlier.

Out on the street now he was again at the mercy of the pigeons, not to mention Climatika, who had flown out of the top of the bakery and was shooting more ice down at him. He scampered away on all fours, like he had seen Chat Noir do sometimes. He had no idea where he was going but the buildings around him seemed to be getting taller and more streamlined. Climatika still chased after him, hopping from rooftop to rooftop, her laugh colder and louder than the wind she blasted through the streets.

He suddenly heard her shriek. Daring to stop and look up, he saw her being punched across the sky by… _a giant boxing glove?_ Who on earth had that kind of weapon? Climatika landed roughly on the rooftop across the street and immediately got back onto her feet. She let out a screech of fury and launched an onslaught of ice and hail in every direction. Copycat quickly ducked into the nearest doorway. The street in front of him was pelted by giant hailstones, so big they made dents in the cars. The ground below him was slowly freezing over. He shivered and noticed a few icicles hanging above his head.

He waited in the doorway for at least 5 minutes while the hail fell and the temperature dropped further. He saw and heard the occasional lightning strike too. It seemed like Climatika was preoccupied with battling another villain for now, but he didn’t yet dare venture out onto the street again. She might still be able to kill him, or the other villain might be able to.

The hail soon let up and the temperature started to increase slightly, though it was still dark and windy. Maybe Climatika had moved a bit further away. Copycat crept back out onto the street and looked around - sure enough, he couldn’t see her or her opponent. There was a bright flash towards the north, followed almost immediately by a loud rumble of thunder. Copycat clung to his baton and extended it upwards, peeking over the tops of the buildings. Somewhere on a roof several streets away he saw Climatika in a duel with Evillustrator, who was on a jetpack. Well, there was no way he was interfering there unless he was looking to get killed. He descended back to street level and ran back towards the city centre as quick as he could.

The older Timebreaker managed to find her younger self, surrounded by the ashes of dead pigeons.

“I saved Dark Cupid and Guitar Villain, but it’s okay if the pigeons die, right?” Timebreaker 2 asked.

“Whatever,” T1 said. “Anyway, I got Antibug and Copycat on our side. Now us two need to save the Mime and Kung Food. They’re pretty near each other. Come on, I’ll show you.”

The two of them skated southwards until they reached the street next to the one where Gamer was in a heated battle with Reflekta.

“Okay, on at the other end of that street, the Mime is there. Get him to go away so Gamer doesn’t kill him. Meanwhile I’ll go try and stop Kung Food being eaten alive by pigeons. We’ll meet back at the centre of the arena, the others will turn up there too. And try not to die.”

Her younger self smiled. “Don’t worry, I won’t die. We’re the strongest ones here, right?” She skated off.

The older Timebreaker skated towards where she remembered having found Kung Food’s dead body and hoped she was in time to save him. When she got there she saw him being attacked by a vicious swarm of pigeons. They were pecking at his skin and clothes, even his chef hat - though his hat wasn’t damaged to the point of the akuma escaping yet. He fell to his knees, trying his hardest to swat the pigeons away with what looked like a large fly swatter made of crackers, but it just made the pigeons more hungry.

Timebreaker started killing as many of the pigeons as she could. Soon enough there were only a few left, not enough to be a threat. Kung Food was bleeding and there were punctures all over his face and arms, but he got to his feet all the same. Then he started hitting Timebreaker with the fly swatter.

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing?” she said, snatching it off him and snapping it. In his injured state he was no match for her in a fight.

“Trying to kill you,” he replied. He summoned what seemed to be a large club made of several different types of fruit and tried hitting her with it, but she moved aside easily.

“I save you from the pigeons, and this is how you repay me?” she said, rather annoyed now. “Sheesh, maybe I should just kill you after all.”

“Killing is the rule of the game, if you tried to save me then that is your loss and you will lose,” Kung Food said, still trying to hit her with the club. A few seconds later, though, he fell to his knees again. The blood was starting to seep through his clothes and stain the ground.

“I could easily win if I wanted to.” Timebreaker grabbed the fruit club off him and started munching on one of the apples. “But it’s more interesting like this. Hey, think of what Marinette would say if you won. I think she’d be pretty horrified if her uncle turned out to be a murderer. But anyway, that’s your choice. Thanks for the free food. I hope you don’t bleed to death.” She skated away.

Back at the city centre where the Games had started, Antibug sat on a bench and waited. What was taking the others so long? Eventually one of the Timebreakers turned up, shortly followed by the other one.

“I made Pharaoh and Bubbler get trapped in each other’s bubbles,” Antibug said.

“Good,” said the older Timebreaker. “Kung Food’s injured but alive.”

“I chased the Mime away,” the younger one said. “Oh, and by the way, Reflekta got hit with a Jackady card and she’s part of his army now. I think they ran away to the South Eastern Sector. I don’t know what Gamer’s doing now.”

“Where’s Copycat?” Antibug said, looking around impatiently. “I hope he hasn’t got caught in that storm. Have you heard all the thunder and lightning? At least we know Climatika’s still alive.”

They waited, eating the fruit from Kung Food’s stolen weapon, until finally Copycat arrived. He slumped down on the floor.

“I’m so tired and cold,” he complained. “I tricked Pixelator into going into the forest but then there were pigeons and feathers and Climatika chased me for ages and I fell down a flight of stairs and got hit with hailstones and now she’s fighting Evillustrator so maybe we’d better stop them before they kill each other…”

There was another lightning flash and an almighty clap of thunder.

“Nah, just leave it,” Timebreaker 1 said. “I killed them both last time, but de-akumatizing them will be much harder. We’ll wait till later when they’re more tired. Or if one of them dies and we hear a cannon, I’ll just go back in time and we can go face them when they’re at their most exhausted.”

“What do we do until then?” asked Antibug.

“We should probably find some more food and water. I mean, I guess you could eat the pigeons and drink melted hail or something, but I’d rather have some proper food. And stay away from the other villains for now. Tomorrow we can start working on de-akumatizing them but for now let’s let them all spread out so we can do it one at a time.”

The day continued. A few small battles happened here and there between villains, and of course there was the epic rooftop weather duel that was still happening between Climatika and Evillustrator, but most were just hiding alone or in teams. Hawk Moth had pulled up a chair and sat in front of his display, watching and waiting for the _official_ end of the bloodbath, hoping for at least _one_ death, but still it dragged on. After all, Climatika and Evillustrator were _still_ trying to kill each other. It had been how long now? Seven hours? Hawk Moth could barely keep his eyes open anymore. Every time it looked like one of them had the upper hand, the other would suddenly launch an attack to throw them off-balance and extend the battle even longer. It looked relentless and horrific. As for the other villains in the arena, Hawk Moth was rather annoyed at them. Not only were they teaming up and refusing to kill each other, they were stopping any deaths from happening at all! How frustrating. He laid his head on the table. Hopefully after a few days the urge to kill would overpower their little rebellion, and his Hunger Games would finally happen like he had envisioned.

He detransformed into his civilian self and put a bowl of food in front of a rather tired Nooroo. “Here Nooroo, please keep an eye on the Games while I go make dinner for myself.” He left the room. Nooroo sighed and began eating.

In another room somewhere in Hawk Moth’s mysterious lair, Lila sat on a sofa, watching the events of the Games unfold on a large screen in front of her. She could only vaguely remember being in the arena herself - it felt like it had been a dream. Hawk Moth wasn’t allowing her or anyone else to leave the lair until the end of the Games, so that they wouldn’t go call Ladybug and Chat Noir to come and stop what was going on. No chance of that with Lila though - there was no way she was calling Ladybug to help her with anything ever again. She just wished she could get out of here and go back home. She didn’t want to stay here and watch Hawk Moth’s stupid Hunger Games.

Looking at the screen, seeing all those powerful villains fighting each other, still in the arena… Lila hugged her knees to her chest. Why had she allowed herself to be defeated so easily? It was so unfair. Everyone was going to remember her as the loser of the Hunger Games. Was there any way she could spin this in her favour? Not that she could think of.

A sound in the corner of the room made her jump. She turned to see a writhing mass of butterflies, all converged into the shape of a human. It carried a tray full of food and set it down in front of Lila before leaving again. Lila looked down at the food. It looked delicious, but she wasn’t really hungry. On the bright side, at least Hawk Moth was being nice enough to provide food for the duration of her enforced stay.

Late in the evening, the stormy weather came to an abrupt halt. The team of villains listened out for a cannon sound, but there wasn’t one. The clouds began to disperse and the air warmed up.

“Is she… dead?” Antibug asked.

“We would have heard a cannon,” said one of the Timebreakers. “Maybe she’s… trapped or something? Injured?”

Antibug shrugged. “One less villain to worry about for now.”


	5. Chapter 5

The Bubbler awoke the next morning to the distant sound of thudding. He looked at the bubble next to him and saw that Pharaoh was still asleep. The thudding came closer and closer until Bubbler could see what it was - Gamer’s giant mecha robot, at the end of the street, laughing and zapping cars and the occasional remaining pigeon. Now at level 2, it was bigger than it had been the previous day. And it was coming down the street straight towards them.

“Dude, Pharaoh, wake up!” Bubbler yelled, pounding on the walls of the bubble with his fists. Pharaoh opened his eyes.

“What’s going o-”

“Gamer’s right there and he’s totally gonna kill us, please just use your shockwave clap right now and get us out of here! I swear I won’t kill you, just don’t let us be zapped by Gamer okay?!”

Pharaoh turned and saw the mecha advancing on them. “Fine. For today at least, I won’t kill you either. Sekhmet, give me strength!” He brought his hands together and the resulting blast managed to burst both the bubbles. The two villains then fled in opposite directions as quick as they could.

Inside his giant robot, Gamer scowled. It was easy enough to gain points when he could zap the innocent unsuspecting citizens of Paris, who always crowded the streets in hordes. It was far more difficult to catch the quick-moving villains, who were already on the lookout for him. Thank goodness for pigeons - without them, he’d never have managed to get this many points. Of course, he had _tried_ to zap Climatika and Evillustrator yesterday, while they were distracted with their rather spectacularly violent rooftop battle in the Northern Sector, but a lightning strike had landed so close to his mecha suit that he decided it wasn’t worth it. Without the mecha suit he was nothing, he couldn’t afford to let it be frazzled to bits. Of course he continuously saved his game and could reload it at any point, but if the suit had been struck by lightning, he would probably have been frazzled along with it and that would be the end of him.

Meanwhile Antibug, Copycat and the Timebreakers had woken up and were hiding inside one of the buildings, eating breakfast and secretly watching Gamer through one of the windows.

“How are we supposed to defeat him?” Antibug asked. “He’s inside that suit.”

“I know!” Copycat leapt up. “I’ll use my Cataclysm!”

“Look, to do that you’d need to get close enough to touch him, and I don’t trust you to be able to do that. I mean, you may have Chat Noir’s powers but let’s face it, you’re not as good as Chat Noir. Gamer would zap you in a second.”

Copycat strode towards her, hands on his hips. “Well you’re not as good as Ladybug, so don’t think you’ll be any better than I will.”

“Excuse me? I’m _better_ than Ladybug, I’m better than Chat Noir, and I’m certainly better than _you_.”

“Do you want to test that?” Copycat clenched his fists.

“That sounds like a good idea,” Antibug replied, her hand going straight to her yoyo.

The Timebreakers quickly jumped between them. “Guys, it’ll be a bad idea if you kill each other because it’ll cheer up Hawk Moth, who we’ve probably managed to make somewhat grumpy by now,” said the older one. “Anyway I already have a safer plan to take down Gamer and it involves Reflekta, because that’s less risky. She can shoot through windows, right? She might be able to get Gamer from a distance through the little window in the front of his mecha and transform him into a clone. That way he won’t be connected to his mecha suit so it’ll disappear and then we can just deal with him normally.”

“But we won’t be able to de-akumatize him then because his glasses will be gone, duh,” Antibug said, rolling her eyes.

“Well… I think Reflekta can transform people back. So then we force Gamer into joining our side, then Reflekta transforms him back, and we smash his glasses and purify the akuma before he can reload his mecha suit.”

A glass suddenly fell off the table in the corner of the room and shattered loudly. The villains all jumped up, weapons ready.

“Don’t attack, it’s just me, Vanisher! The invisible one!” The voice came from the corner of the room. “I just… I mean, I wasn’t spying on you for very long, I just heard some of your plan. And I also maybe heard some of your conversations yesterday too. By the way, I think it’s a really good idea! Can I join you?”

“Well, she might be useful,” Antibug said to the others. “Sabrina always does what I say.”

“I’m _Vanisher_ , not Sabrina, and I’m not your servant to boss around, okay Chloé? I want to be a _teammate_ , not a slave.”

“My name is Antibug, not Ch-”

“And I have some valuable information for you, if you’re willing to listen.”

“Fine, what is it?”

“Yesterday I found out some very interesting things. I teamed up with my dad - Rogercop - who wanted to stop all the murder because it’s against the law. We went after Puppeteer, since we wanted to keep her out of trouble. I mean, I don’t think anyone wanted to kill her anyway, but we wanted to keep her safe. We caught her in the South Western Sector and my dad got her with his magic handcuffs and then I stole her Lady Wifi puppet and tore it to pieces. We put Puppeteer in a room with lots of food and toys so I guess you guys can go de-akumatize her when you’re ready. And then we went to find my dad’s car but Gamer zapped it and almost zapped us. Then we went to try and stop the epic rooftop weather duel between Climatika and Evillustrator but my dad got struck by lightning and started malfunctioning, so I hid him in a building for now. Then I went to watch the weather battle. It was like watching an action movie and it went on for _ages_ \- and then you’ll never believe what happened. It was getting dark and so I thought Evillustrator was going to lose since he can’t draw in the dark, but then he somehow managed to get close enough to Climatika to erase the floor she was standing on, and then he erased her umbrella. And because the akuma had been in the umbrella, it escaped and flew away, and Climatika turned into Aurore and disappeared.”

“But… but… I’m the only one who can de-akumatize people!” Antibug gripped her yoyo tightly in her hand.

“I think you’re the only one who can do it properly. The akuma fluttered around a bit but instead of multiplying, it just disappeared too. Hawk Moth must have taken it back and maybe just purified it himself.”

“Well that’s anti-climatic,” Antibug huffed. “It’s much better if I do it the Ladybug way. That will annoy Hawk Moth more too, since he hates Ladybug.”

“Still,” one of the Timebreakers said, “it might be handy to have Evillustrator on our side, considering he was powerful enough to take down Climatika single-handedly without actually killing her. He’s one of those nicer villains, right? Like Princess Fragrance? Hopefully it won’t be too hard to persuade him to join us. If all else fails there’s always torture.”

“Well, let’s do that later,” Antibug said. “I think we should first go and de-akumatize Puppeteer, then go find Reflekta and get her to take down Gamer. And of course to get Reflekta we have to first fight Jackady and get her out of his control. What do you think everyone?”

“What about my dad?” Vanisher asked.

“Um… we can go sort him out afterwards. We need Gamer out of the way first, he’s way too dangerous.”

“Fine. Let’s do it.”

Puppeteer sat on the cold metal floor, holding a toy car in each hand, driving them around as if they were on a chase. She had been doing this for hours and it was getting tedious. There weren’t many other toys around to play with. She had spent most of the night playing around on the factory machinery, excited to be staying up this late without any adults around to tell her to go to sleep, but now she was tired and bored. When were the policeman and his invisible daughter going to come back and free her? Why didn’t Hawk Moth just take her out of the Games, since she couldn’t even _do_ anything? Every time she tried to go to the door to get out of here, the magic handcuffs on her wrists would yank her back painfully. Of course, during her time stuck in this room she had come up with an excellent plan to get herself out of the arena very quickly, _and_ all the others, but for that she really needed someone to come and get her. Why had she been locked in here anyway? Just because she was a child? That was unfair, she could take care of herself. After all, the last time she was akumatized, she had come so close to winning, closer than most of the other villains. Was everyone really just not going to give her a chance to prove herself, just because of her age?

The door opened. Puppeteer immediately dropped the toy cars, picked up her wand and leapt to her feet, ready to defend herself. There in the doorway stood… Ladybug? No, it couldn’t be her, she wasn’t a villain. Anyway, she wore different colours and had different hair. This must have been Antibug.

“Don’t come any closer!” Puppeteer said, floating above the ground and trying to look menacing. “Rogercop and Vanisher will kill you if you do!”

“Shut up, you whiny brat,” Antibug snapped. “I’m saving your life. Now give me your wand so I can de-akumatize you.” She stepped towards Puppeteer.

“No, wait! I have a plan-”

“Be quiet, you’re like 7.” Antibug used her yoyo to lasso the wand and pull it straight out of Puppeteer’s grasp.

“Will you just listen?” Puppeteer sulked, crossing her arms. “It’s a really good plan! We need to-”

Antibug snapped the wand in half and threw it on the ground. “I already have a plan and I’m not interested in hearing your temper tantrums, just get out of here so I can save everyone and win this thing.”

Puppeteer dropped to the ground and transformed back into Manon before vanishing from the arena. She found herself re-materializing, unable to remember anything, in a dark room with several sofas, tables and a lot of television screens. Two teenage girls were peering over her, looking concerned. One of them looked very familiar.

“Hey, you’re Aurore, aren’t you?” Manon asked. “You were in the weather contest! Are you friends with Mireille? She’s my favourite.”

“Oh… she’s in my class,” Aurore replied, not wanting to think about the weather contest. “Are you okay though?”

“Yes, of course I am! Why do you guys look so unhappy? Wait… where even am I? What just happened?”

“Um… do you remember any of this?” the other girl said, gesturing at the television screens. Manon looked at them. Each of them seemed to be showing different areas of what looked like a city. “Do you remember any of the Hunger Games?” the girl continued.

“That’s a movie, isn’t it?” Manon replied. “I wasn’t allowed to watch it though because they think I’m too little.” She carried on looking at the screens. It really did seem familiar, like something out of a dream. “Wait, I think I remember something. Was I a villain again? Did I have to fight the other villains?”

“Yes, Hawk Moth turned you back into Puppeteer and put you into the arena you see on the screens. He did it with lots of other villains too. We were all supposed to kill each other. But we’ve survived so far. In fact, I was the first one to make it out of there alive,” the girl added quickly. “I’m Lila Rossi, by the way.”

“Manon, what was your plan?” Aurore asked.

“What plan?”

“Just before Antibug de-akumatized you, you said you had a plan to save everyone. Do you remember what it was?”

“Yeah, I think so. It’s easy. We just have to tell the drawing guy to draw a Hawk Moth puppet, then I could use my powers to control the puppet and make Hawk Moth set everyone free and give us lots of money and promise to stop being a baddie.”

“That’s actually a really good plan,” Aurore said, looking disappointedly at the screens. “I mean, Timebreaker’s plan isn’t bad either, but… yours would have been a lot quicker and easier.”

“Not really,” Lila said. “If you’d told someone the plan and Hawk Moth heard, or he saw Evillustrator drawing a Hawk Moth puppet, he would have just taken you out of the arena before you had a chance to do anything.”

Manon frowned. “Oh. Anyway I can’t do the plan anymore because I’m not a villain anymore. What’s going to happen now? When can I go home?”

“You can go home when the Games are over,” Lila said. “Don’t worry, there are food and beds here, even a toilet and shower. And I’m an expert babysitter, I’ve had to look after loads of children before, even the kids of famous people, so I’ll take care of you. I have loads of great stories to tell.”

Manon looked at the screens again. “Is everyone else going to die?”

“I don’t think so. Timebreaker’s trying to use her time travel powers to stop anyone dying and Antibug’s de-akumatizing everyone.”

“Why? Aren’t they villains? Don’t they want to kill people?”

Lila shrugged. “None of us were very angry this time when we were akumatized so maybe that made us less evil? Well, some of us at least…” She glanced at Aurore. “Aurore, how much of being a villain can you remember?”

“Nothing much,” she said hastily. It wasn’t a complete lie - she really _couldn’t_ remember much of it, other than something about there being lots of annoying pigeons everywhere. But then again, last night she’d had some absolutely horrendous nightmares about a fierce and endless battle, constantly having to avoid blows from a powerful adversary who could create and destroy anything on a whim… Surely that couldn’t have been real. She wouldn’t have believed it, if it weren’t for the fact that many of the villains were talking about an “epic rooftop weather duel”, and that Evillustrator, covered in roughly drawn bandages, had been asleep for 14 hours straight. As exhausted as she was herself, Aurore did not want to go back to sleep. Not if she had to face that again.

“I remember some of being a villain,” Lila said smugly. “I whacked Timebreaker in the face with my flute. Oh, and there weren’t really _all_ that many pigeons, lots of them were my illusions. And-”

“I’m hungry,” Manon said. “Where’s the food? Are there any sweets?”

“I think there are a few,” said Lila, grabbing a bowl of food from a nearby table. The three former villains sat and ate while watching the Games on the screens in front of them.


	6. Chapter 6

“The baby’s been de-akumatized,” Antibug said, yawning and shutting the building door behind her. “Where to next?”

“Was she okay?” Vanisher asked. “We left her enough food and stuff, right?”

“Well she’s not _dead_ , isn’t that enough? Anyway let’s go get rid of Jackady. Where did you say he is? The Sou-” She stopped abruptly, looking upwards suddenly. “Did anyone notice that?”

The others looked up to see a neon pink camera symbol, hanging in the sky some distance above them.

“What _is_ that?” asked Copycat.

“One of Lady Wifi’s cameras,” Antibug said. She remembered all too well the last time Lady Wifi had used them - on _her_. “She’s spying on us. She can probably see and hear everything we’re doing here. Ugh, how did no one notice that before? You’re all so incompetent. I don’t know what I expected.”

“Hey, _you_ didn’t notice it either,” Copycat snapped.

“Whatever, don’t start a fight. Let’s go. Follow me.” She threw her yoyo out towards a nearby building and swung down the street. The other villains followed.

The group reached the South Eastern Sector around midday. The sun shone down powerfully here, making it look like the grassy hills in the distance were shimmering. Most of this area was complete wilderness - a big change from the metropolis of the centre of the arena.

Vanisher crept through field after field while the others temporarily hid, looking for signs of Jackady. It wasn’t easy, since the uneven terrain meant that Jackady and Reflekta could be hiding just about anywhere. The ground was also not so easy for the Timebreakers to skate on, though they did their best. Back in the lair little Manon was yelling at the screen, “Turn right! Turn right! You’ve almost found them!” over and over, to little avail.

Finally Vanisher spotted them resting by the side of a small stream. The place was quiet and idyllic, the only sound being the chirping of insects, and the surrounding hills conveniently blocking any view of the nearby city. Jackady was lying on the grass, asleep, while Reflekta stood guard, holding a sharpened stick in her hand. Jackady’s pack of cards lay on the ground beside him.

Being as quiet as possible, Vanisher crept even nearer to them. It looked like they had faced some serious battles yesterday, since both Jackady and Reflekta had cuts on their skin, and Reflekta’s sharpened stick was tinged red at the end. Reflekta herself was slouching, her eyes drooping. The tip of one of her hair decorations was black and charred, as if it had been burned off. Which villain must have done all this?

Holding her breath so as not to make any noise, Vanisher crept round behind Reflekta and picked up Jackady’s pack of cards. She slipped it silently into her bag, rendering it completely invisible like the rest of her. Then she went back to the rest of her group - it took a while to find them, since everywhere in this sector looked the same.

“I’ve got the cards,” she whispered, making them all jump and look around suddenly. She took the cards out of her bag and handed them to Copycat. “Destroy these, but be quiet. They’re not very far away.”

Copycat lifted his arm in the air. “ _Cataclysm!_ ” he whispered. Then he touched the pack of cards, which turned black and crumbled to dust in his grip. The akuma fluttered out, its wings flapping alarmingly loudly. Antibug wordlessly caught the akuma in her yoyo, then let it go free as a normal little butterfly. It felt weird doing it without saying Ladybug’s normal de-akumatizing speech.

“Let’s get Reflekta - this way!” Vanisher took Antibug’s arm and quickly led her back towards the stream, with everyone else following. They arrived just in time to see Jackady - now in his civilian form - disappear, leaving behind only an indent in the grass. He hadn’t even woken up.

Reflekta, on the other hand, was frowning and looking far more awake than she had looked earlier. She saw the villains running towards her and she began shooting at them with one hand, her other hand holding her spiked stick like a spear. Vanisher ran up behind her and kicked the stick out of Reflekta’s hand, then grabbed her arms and held them behind her back so she couldn’t do anything.

“Let go of me!” Reflekta snarled, stepping backwards and stomping as hard as she could on Vanisher’s foot with her huge heel. The pain was awful, but Vanisher did not let go. The other villains stood around Reflekta in a circle.

“We’re not going to kill you,” Antibug said. “Actually we want you to join our team.”

Reflekta laughed. “Why would I want to join your team?”

“Uh, because you have no choice? Because we could kill you in about 70 different ways if you don’t listen to us? Very painful ways, too. Want me to demonstrate?”

“Just try it,” Reflekta spat, stomping on Vanisher’s other foot.

“Trust me, I would love to! But you see, actually I’ve got this _brilliant_ plan to get everyone out of here alive. It’s _super_ amazing, and we need your help.”

“I don’t care about getting everyone out alive. None of you deserve it anyway.”

“But you care about revenge on Hawk Moth, right? For making you do all this, while you could have happily been hanging out somewhere as Juleka, and instead thanks to him you’re stuck in this arena with people trying to kill you everywhere?”

“Who cares? I’m _glad_ I’m here. I look far better now than I ever did as Juleka. And certainly much better than the rest of _you_.”

Antibug threw her yoyo at Reflekta, wrapping it tightly around her neck. “Listen here, you fool. Either you join us and help us de-akumatize Gamer, or we’ll just kill you right now. I’ll snap your pretty little neck.”

“I thought your plan was to get everyone out of here alive? That won’t work if you kill me, will it?”

Antibug rolled her eyes. She tightened the yoyo string slightly. “What’s it gonna take to get you to join us, seriously? Either you join us now, or I torture you until you do. What’ll it be?”

“Hmm… Promise me you won’t hurt Princess Fragrance, then I’ll join your team. No torturing her or threatening her. She’s the only one in here who looks anywhere near as amazing as I do - though of course, she’s still not as good as me. But I’d rather team up with her than with you losers. I even thought about doing it right at the start.”

“Fine, we won’t hurt her, she can join our team too,” Antibug said. “Anyway, now you’re on our team, I may as well warn you that if you try zapping any of us, we will hurt you slowly and horribly. And Timebreaker can just go back in time and stop you anyway. So don’t even think about trying it. Vanisher, you can let her go now.”

Antibug retracted her yoyo and Vanisher stepped back and collapsed to the ground, rubbing her aching feet.

“Why are you doing all this anyway?” Reflekta asked, picking her stick up from the ground. “Why bother saving everyone?”

“To annoy Hawk Moth, duh! He was so rude about us all in the case files! And also because this way it’ll be more fun for us _afterwards_. Like, if you won the Games, then Hawk Moth would turn you back into Juleka and you’d be a sad loner with no friends left because they’re all dead. I mean, I know you’re kind of already super emo and gothy or whatever, some weird thing like that, you probably think it would be awesome if everyone died. But surely even you would be sad without any friends to order around.”

“Of course, normal people don’t order their friends around, Chloé,” Vanisher muttered, though no one heard her.

“Fine, you make a good point,” said Reflekta. “Ugh, I was so much _weaker_ as Juleka, I don’t want to go back… but if he’ll make me anyway… Alright, what do you want me to do first?”

Antibug began to speak, but suddenly stopped and stared into the distance. “Guys… that looks familiar…”

Everyone turned to look in the direction of the edge of the arena. Huge clouds had formed, and in the distance a large black wall seemed to be racing towards them.

“It’s that thing which turns everyone into a knight!” Antibug said. “Darkblade must have put his flag at the top of the Power Tower! If that wall thing runs into us, we’ll be turned into knights and that’s it for us! How the heck are we supposed to avoid it?”

“I have an idea,” one of the Timebreakers said. “I’ll go back in time and get to the Power Tower and stop him. But uh… I’m gonna need to kill you guys to have enough energy for that.”

“Out of the question!” Antibug screeched. “I am NOT letting you-”

She didn’t even finish her sentence before Timebreaker smacked her in the face, pausing her in time and absorbing her life energy. Within a few seconds she had killed the rest of the group - well, except her other self, and Vanisher (who she couldn’t find all of a sudden). Killing people again… it felt good. _Scarily_ good. It was what she was made to do after all, wasn’t it? The lights on her skates shone like beacons.

“Hey, are you sure we can’t just win the Games normally?” she said to her other self. “It won’t be that bad…”

“Yes it will, just hurry up and go back in time already!”

“Fine…”

She headed towards the city, her skates stumbling over the uneven ground. Luckily most of the way was downhill, and she was able to get to the speed needed to time travel without most of the effort.

“You IDIOT!” Lila yelled at the screens. “Just let yourselves be turned into knights ugghhhh! Then Darkblade will win but you’ll all still live!” She grabbed the nearest screen and shook it.

“Hey… you don’t have to do that…” Jacques Grimault muttered from the corner of the room, though without much conviction. He had only just woken up and still wasn’t entirely sure what was going on, though these children had told him they would explain later once the action was over.

“Lila, that’s not the point,” Aurore said. “They want to annoy Hawk Moth as much as possible. That means de-akumatizing people properly.”

“Yeah, but _still_ … I hate it here. I want to go home. Don’t they?”

“They’re villains. Who knows what they’re thinking.”


	7. Chapter 7

A short time travel trip later, Timebreaker ended up somewhere nearer the Southern Sector a little earlier in the day. She remembered the group having passed through this area on their way to find Jackady, so she waited for them. Sure enough they arrived soon.

"Hey, it's me from the future," she said, skating up to them rather suddenly and startling them. "No one dies, but I have to go stop Darkblade from putting his flag on top of the Power Tower. You guys carry on what you're doing, come and find me once you've got Reflekta on your side, okay?"

Without waiting for an answer, she turned around and headed north. The tall tip of the Power Tower was already visible from here, jutting out of the silver mass of skyscrapers in the distance. Timebreaker didn't know how much time she had before Darkblade would get there so she went as quick as possible, hoping not to bump into any other villains along the way. At one point she heard the familiar sound of Gamer's mecha robot, stomping around and zapping things, but she kept well out of the way. Many areas of the Central Sector were strewn with the dead bodies of pigeons, now covered in flies and starting to rot. Mr Pigeon probably wouldn't be happy about that. Unluckily Timebreaker's helmet didn't cover enough of her face to protect her from the worst of the stench.

The Power Tower stood at the very northern edge of the Northern Sector, surrounded by huge office-like buildings. Timebreaker skated in through the automatic doors and headed straight for the lift - there was no way she was climbing however many flights of stairs to the top in _rollerskates_. But then she saw a neon pink lock button on the lift doors. Clearly Lady Wifi had been here first and decided to make life difficult for everyone. Scowling, Timebreaker turned around and went towards the stairs. Maybe she'd just have to take off her skates and walk for once.

Somewhere behind her there was a clanking sound, followed by a smash. She turned to see Darkblade standing in the doorway, having sliced his way through the automatic doors with his sword.

"Desist!" he yelled, pointing his sword straight at her. "By the blood of mine ancestors, I swear I will win this tournament, and bring honour and glory to-"

He ducked as Timebreaker threw a vase straight at his head. It flew through the hole in the doors behind him and shattered on the ground outside. Meanwhile Darkblade had clearly had enough of making dramatic speeches, and instead charged towards Timebreaker, swinging his sword. She leapt aside and tried to trip him up, but he managed to dodge her foot and smashed the flat side of his sword down on her helmet so hard that the glass cracked.

_How am I supposed to stop this guy without killing him?_ she thought to herself. Not only was Darkblade much better at fighting, but he was wearing protective armour too. _I'll just have to keep dodging, hopefully that will tire him out._

Darkblade, however, was rather annoyingly quick. Not only did he keep swinging his sword around dangerously, he also occasionally would stop and hold it up vertically, then use it to try and zap her. Thankfully his aim wasn't very good. Timebreaker considered luring him outside the building and away from the Power Tower, but he probably wouldn't fall for that. In any case Darkblade picked up a nearby sofa and threw it at the entrance, effectively blocking it. How was he that strong, even with all that heavy armour on? It was unfair.

"Hey, maybe we should team up?" Timebreaker suggested once she'd managed to get distant enough from him to catch her breath a little.

"Never!" he yelled. "Unless you are a knight under my command, not one single one amongst you scoundrels is worthy of being a teammate of such a noble-" He had to duck again, this time to avoid the chair Timebreaker threw at him.

"You know what, maybe I should just kill you after all," Timebreaker snapped. "Only one person, it won't even make a difference. Our class can just get a new PE teacher. If anyone in Paris cared about keeping you alive, they'd have voted for you in that election, wouldn't they?"

She raced towards him at top speed, her arm outstretched to freeze him where he stood. He simply smacked her aside with his sword and sent her flying.

"That's it, no more messing around," she muttered as she stood up again. She could feel the fiery rage boiling inside her - exactly how she had felt the first time she'd been akumatized. Who cared about saving people? She was meant to kill people, and that's what she would do.

Then she noticed something. Where was Darkblade's flag? The whole point of what he was trying to achieve was to get his flag up to the top of the building, yet his flag was nowhere in sight. Surely he must have it with him? Unless...

"Where's your flag?" she asked, trying to sound like she wasn't still seriously contemplating murdering him. "Lost it?"

"Of course not," Darkblade replied. "The glorious flag of mine ancestors already resides near the top of this very Tower. I must simply retrieve it, then I can put it in its rightful place and rule over you all. Surely this is not new knowledge - it was in the Power Tower section of the case files. Perhaps it was too much for an illiterate peasant like thee to comprehend."

Oh yes, of _course_ , how could she have forgotten? To be fair there had been a lot on her mind recently. Well, she'd just have to get to the flag first and destroy it.

"I'm not illiterate, and my ancestors are cooler than your ancestors," she said quickly, before heading towards the stairs. Hopefully she was skating fast enough to get the momentum she needed to go up them while still wearing her skates without falling over. There wasn't really time for her to take them off. By the time she had reached the first floor she could hear the clanking of Darkblade chasing her, with the occasional zap of his sword flying over her shoulder.

The Power Tower had 50 floors, clearly too many to get all the way to the top using just the stairs. At the 7th floor Timebreaker realized that Darkblade had fallen behind, seemingly already rather tired, so she ducked out of the stairway and found the lift. Thankfully Lady Wifi hadn't locked the one on this floor. Timebreaker pushed the button and within a few seconds the doors opened. Just in time too, as the sound of Darkblade's armour was getting louder again. She went inside the lift and pressed the button for floor 50.

The lift had reached about floor 35 when Timebreaker looked up and realized that one of Lady Wifi's camera symbols was there, watching her. How recently had Lady Wifi been here, anyway? What if she was still in the building somewhere, hiding and spying on people... waiting for a chance to attack? Timebreaker pressed the button for floor 45 and got out there instead, electing to climb the last few flights of stairs rather than risk Lady Wifi possibly waiting outside the doors of floor 50 ready to attack her.

Floor 50 was in fact the roof itself. Being outdoors, it was much windier here than it had been back down on the ground. In the centre of the roof was a raised circular platform with an indent in the middle. Clearly that was where the villains could unleash their special attacks from. The very edges of the roof were raised slightly, as if in a half hearted attempt to warn people not to fall off. Lady Wifi was nowhere in sight.

The view was incredible - the entire arena was visible. Most of the nearby Northern Sector was a metropolis of tall, office-like buildings, extending into the Central and North Eastern Sectors, though the buildings further east looked as if they were falling apart, as if there had been some catastrophe. The North Western Sector was full of trees. The Eastern and Western Sectors both looked rather empty from up here, although the Western was considerably _more_ empty, with barely even a speck of green visible. Anything further south was difficult to see clearly from here, although having already been to those areas of the arena, Timebreaker already knew what they were like. She turned and looked towards the north, wondering what could possibly lie beyond the northern edge of the arena, but all she could see was a big wall and flat black ground stretching off into the horizon. It was unnerving. Where even _was_ this arena? If Hawk Moth had built it himself, _how?_

She didn't have time to think about that right now. Where was that flag? Looking around, she spotted it lying beside the small section of the floor that had a roof, where the lift and stairwell opened up to. She took the flag, snapped the flagpole in half, unfurled the flag itself and tore it to pieces, then skated up to the edge of the roof and dropped it over. Perfect. Now to just get that sword off Darkblade and give it to Antibug so that she could de-akumatize him.

Rather than going back down in the lift, where Lady Wifi would be able to see her every move, she jumped onto the stair railings and skated down them. That was way more fun, anyway. Considering she wasn't allowed to kill people, she may as well try to have fun in some other way, right?

At floor 7 she saw that the door leading towards the lift had been torn off its hinges - Darkblade had definitely been here, it seemed. Going through the doorway she saw that Darkblade was standing in front of the lift, his sword raised above his head as if he was about to strike, and a neon pink pause button preventing him from moving. That was _definitely_ Lady Wifi's work. She was probably still in the building somewhere.

The lift doors had a big hole cut in them and beyond them the lift cables were visible. It looked as if Darkblade had been trying to cut them, to get the lift to fall. In that case it was a good thing that Lady Wifi had been there to pause him, or otherwise... Timebreaker did not like the idea of death by falling down a lift shaft, even if there were two backup Timebreakers still around to take her place.

In any case she didn't feel like hanging around much longer. After all, Lady Wifi could be anywhere. Timebreaker jumped up and grabbed Darkblade's sword off him - why did everyone always have to be so _tall_ , honestly - then, for good measure, rammed it into his foot through a gap in his armour. At least that way even if Lady Wifi unpaused him before Antibug could de-akumatize him, he'd find it rather difficult to chase his sword down with a gaping hole in his foot. And plus... stabbing people was pretty fun. It served him right for calling her an "illiterate peasant", anyway. And for that one time last week when she'd got a detention from him (even though that had all been Kim's fault, obviously).

 

The rest of the team arrived at the base of the Power Tower to see Timebreaker standing outside, waiting for them. She had used the sword to hack her way through the sofa that Darkblade had used to block the entrance, and had even had a quick look round for Lady Wifi, but there was still no sign of her.

"I got the sword off him, he's stuck on the 7th floor," Timebreaker said, handing the sword to Antibug, who promptly dropped it.

"Ew! Is that _blood?_ I'm not touching that sword, that's disgusting."

"Yeah it's blood, I stabbed him."

"You're not supposed to kill anyone!"

"He's not dead, I only stabbed his foot. Now stop being a wimp and break the sword, unless you want me to do it for you."

"No, it's _my_ job, get out of my way." Antibug picked the sword up off the ground by the very tips of her fingers. She wrapped the string of her yoyo around it, then she flung it towards the side of the building as hard as she could. The sword snapped into two and out flew the tiny black akuma. Antibug quickly untangled her yoyo and then purified the akuma, not bothering to say anything this time.

"Alright, that's another villain down," Antibug said, kicking the remains of the sword away from her. It transformed back into an ordinary fencing sword all in one piece, but otherwise didn't move. "Do you guys know, by any chance, if the akumatized item disappears from the arena too? Or does it just stay here? I don't think Volpina's necklace disappeared, I just dropped it and forgot about it. And Climatika's not getting her parasol back, that's for sure."

"Considering the sword's not disappearing, maybe Hawk Moth just isn't bothering," Copycat suggested.

"How lazy of him. Okay, next I think we should-" She paused, a smile appearing on her face. "Can you hear that? Thudding footsteps? I bet that's Gamer, we passed him on the way here. Good timing. We should fight him next. Reflekta, you know what to do, don't you?"

"Zap him through the little window," Reflekta affirmed.

"Good." Antibug cracked her knuckles. "Let's do this."

 

Armand D'Argencourt, unpaused and back as his civilian self, lay on a stretcher in the side of the room where all the other de-akumatized villains were. The painful wound on his foot was being attended to by what seemed to be several dozen butterflies acting in unison, but considering how much it hurt, he couldn't be sure he wasn't imagining the entire thing.

Lila, the unofficial leader of the ex-villains, tried to act like she wasn't disgusted at the sight of the blood oozing from her PE teacher's foot. "It'll be alright," she said. "This is all Hawk Moth's fault. He turned us all back into villains, and we were supposed to kill each other, but we've survived so far..." She could see that he wasn't paying her any attention. Fair enough. "I'll just explain later." She returned to the screens to see what would happen next.


	8. Chapter 8

"Right, so I'll Cataclysm the mecha if I can, and then-"

"Shut up Copycat!" Antibug whispered furiously. "Your job is to just cover Reflekta if she needs it, okay? It'll get far too confusing if you keep trying to be heroic."

"This is so unfair," he sighed.

"No it's not, now get out of the way. I can hear him coming. If you keep making noise he'll hear us."

The two of them waited behind the side of a building on one side of the street, while the other villains in their team hid on the other side of the street. Gamer's huge mecha robot was indeed getting closer. Its heavy footsteps made the ground shake every few seconds. Now at level 3, the mecha had huge arms too, and a large range of interesting attacks to use. Taking it down was _not_ going to be simple.

Once Gamer was close enough, Antibug signalled a thumbs up at Reflekta, who quickly leaned around the side of the building and aimed her shot at the small window on the face of the mecha. Unluckily she missed, as Gamer had spotted her at the last second. He laughed and sent a volley of shots back, narrowly missing Reflekta.

"Alright, now's your chance to be useful," Antibug said to Copycat. "Go distract Gamer so Reflekta can get him."

Copycat nodded, then used his baton to propel himself up onto the nearest building. He waved and called out, "Hey Gamer! Over here!" The next second he had to leap out of the way, as one of the mecha's giant hands crashed down onto where he had just been standing, shattering the roof and launching a cloud of dust.

Meanwhile the other villains were already in action. Antibug was trying to wrap her yoyo string around the mecha's legs so she could trip it up, remembering having seen something like that in a film sometime. Reflekta carried on trying to zap the window, though it was much harder to aim on the move when she was trying to avoid all the shots Gamer was aiming at _her_. Vanisher was helping Antibug out with the yoyo antics, occasionally pulling her out of Gamer's line of fire. The triple Timebreakers half-heartedly tried to distract Gamer too, but since Copycat was already doing a good enough job of that, it didn't make much of a difference. For once they were beginning to wish they had some kind of villain powers that could help in a fight, _other_ than just being able to kill people in a millisecond.

Gamer suddenly jumped up onto the roof of a nearby building, the top few floors crumpling under his weight. He reached out his hand to grab Copycat, who was on the roof of the building next to him.

"CATACLYSM!"

Copycat slammed his hand into the mecha's metal arm. Within a few seconds the whole machine had rotted and disappeared, leaving Gamer himself - now completely vulnerable - falling into the crumbling mess of a building below him.

"Hey, did you see that?" Copycat called to the others. "I did it!"

"Well hurry up and go get his glasses before he reloads his game!" Antibug called back.

"Oh yeah, but first, look what we got!" A bright red orb appeared just in front of Copycat. He tapped it, and another giant mecha machine suddenly materialized behind him, heavy enough to dent the roof of this building too. "Who's gonna help me pilot this thing? Are any of you "drift compatible" with me?"

"Will you just hurry up and get the glasses?!" Antibug screeched. She used her yoyo to swing herself up to the top of the building that Gamer had fallen into. There was a huge hole at the top where the mecha had stood earlier, but peering in, she couldn't see Gamer. "I'll do it myself, if you won't."

"Not so fast!" Gamer said from somewhere within the building, his voice echoing. His mecha suddenly rematerialized, destabilizing the building even more. Antibug leapt aside onto Copycat's rooftop, and just in time, as the rest of the building gave way and fell to the ground. Gamer, back in his mecha suit, laughed heartily.

"You idiot!" Antibug said, kicking Copycat in the shin. "I told you not to use your Cataclysm! Now you only have 5 minutes before you lose your powers. Ugh, you're so stupid. There's no way I'm letting you pilot this thing with me." She yoyo-ed herself up into the cockpit of the new mecha.

"Hey, I'm the one who won it!" Copycat yelled. "And it needs two pilots! You can't do this by yourself!"

"I can, but I'd like a hand anyway." Antibug's mecha jumped off the roof and onto the ground, making a huge indent in the road. "Vanisher, wherever you are, get over here please. You're going to be my partner."

"Really?" came Vanisher's voice from... somewhere.

"Yes, of course, you are my best friend after all, no one else here is good enough to work with me as a team. Now don't keep me waiting. Where are you?"

"Already here!" Vanisher said, and Antibug was surprised to hear that the voice was coming from right behind her, in the cockpit. That was quick.

"Do either of you actually _know_ how to pilot those things?" Copycat said, folding his arms.

"Of course," Antibug huffed. "Adrien taught me all about _Ultimate Mecha Strike III_ the other week. I'm an _expert_."

Gamer had finally untangled himself from the debris of the fallen building, and he jumped onto the street in front of the other mecha. "You're nothing but a noob! No one in this arena stands a chance against me."

"We'll see about that!"

The two mechas began furiously attacking each other, both with physical attacks and more long-range ones. The results was more surrounding buildings being hit and falling apart, with debris flying everywhere. Copycat leapt down onto the ground and hid out of the way with Reflekta and the Timebreakers.

"I should be trying to zap him!" Reflekta said, her fists clenched. She stepped forwards but was promptly tripped up by one of the Timebreakers.

"If you want a brick in the head then sure. But it'll be safer to wait. I bet Antibug's going to use Anti-Charm at some point."

"Oh yes, good point... I do really want to transform him, though. He's so ugly. Not quite as ugly as Antibug of course. But much uglier than Princess Fragrance."

Copycat stretched and leaned against the wall. "How good-looking would you say I am?"

"Hmm... you're still quite ugly," Reflekta replied.

"Rude. But then again I look like Chat Noir, so I guess you're just saying that _he's_ ugly, fair enough. And what do you think of the terror triplets here?"

Reflekta looked at the Timebreakers. "I can't tell. They have big helmets on that make them look like bug aliens. If you took your helmets off for a second, then I could-"

"Nope," all three Timebreakers said in unison.

"Fine then. I'll carry on thinking of you as bug aliens."

 

Antibug stood up inside the cockpit. "Let's be real, we don't stand a chance against him. I'm going to use Anti-Charm. Vanisher, you keep an eye on the controls for a second."

"I'll try..."

Antibug  jumped through the hatch and out onto the head of the mecha. Throwing her yoyo up in the air, she yelled, " _Anti-Charm!_ " The next thing she knew, a black and red can of spray paint had been delivered into her hands. Well, of course it was spray paint. Even she had heard the stories of how the real Ladybug and Chat Noir had defeated Gamer - by painting over his cockpit window, forcing him to have to open it and look outside. This would be easy. Who said Anti-Charm was weaker than Lucky Charm? Clearly it was just the same!

Using her yoyo, Antibug swung up dangerously close to Gamer's mecha, then covered the little window in spray paint. Then she jumped onto its head and waited.

"That trick's not going to work twice!" Gamer said. "This window is staying shut."

"That won't be a problem," said Reflekta, stepping out from behind the building she had been using to keep herself safe. "I'm sure you'll love your new look, Gamer." She held up the mirror on her hand and zapped the window.

Inside the mecha, Gamer was hit by the beam and transformed into an exact physical copy of Reflekta. With his glasses no longer in existence, the mecha vanished, and Gamer dropped to the ground. Antibug landed beside him a little more elegantly.

"How dare you?" Gamer said, getting to his feet. "I'm going to-"

"You're not going to do anything," Antibug said, lassoing him with the yoyo string so he couldn't move. "Oh yes, and hang on a second..." She picked up the spray can from the ground and threw it in the air. "Miraculous Antibug!"

Much like the effect of Ladybug using the finishing move of her Lucky Charm, there was a wave of what seemed to be magic washing over the world around them. Antibug and Vanisher's mecha disappeared, and the three Timebreakers were merged back into one. Other than that nothing happened. Even the copious building damage didn't repair itself.

"A bit anti-climatic, isn't it?" Gamer laughed. "And aren't you going to lose your powers in a few minutes?"

"Oh shut up," Antibug snarled, tugging on the yoyo string until it was tight enough that Gamer was struggling to breathe.

"Um, Antibug?" Vanisher said from somewhere nearby. "I have an idea. Gamer's smart, right? Do you think he could repair my dad? Rogercop? He started malfunctioning when he got struck by lightning but he's not dead."

"Good idea," said Antibug. She turned to Gamer. "Fix Rogercop for us."

"No way, why should I?"

Antibug tightened the yoyo string again. "Because until you cooperate with us, your life is going to be very, very painful."

"Ugh, fine!" Gamer choked out. "I'll repair him, just - will you _let go?_ "

Antibug loosened the string again, but didn't quite unwrap it. "Good. Now, once you've repaired Rogercop, will you be willing to join our team if we transform you back into your normal self?"

"Are you kidding? You try to strangle me and then expect me to join you?"

"I'll take that as a no."

Gamer rubbed his neck. "Look, I'll fix your police robot. But after that, this truce is off. Kill me if you want, I'm never joining you."

"Oh, we're not going to kill you. We have something else in store. But anyway, that comes later. Vanisher, show us where Rogercop is hidden."

Vanisher took Antibug by the arm and led the team to the building where her father was.


	9. Chapter 9

Vanisher had hidden Rogercop inside one of the big office buildings in the Northern Sector. The cars in this area all had huge dents in them and there were puddles everywhere that hadn't yet dried up - clearly this was the area in which Evillustrator and Climatika's weather battle had taken place. At least most of the action had been confined to the rooftops, so the buildings themselves weren't very damaged around here.

Rogercop was completely silent and blank-faced, with error messages repeatedly flashing on the screen on his helmet. He occasionally blinked, but other than that he didn't move or acknowledge anyone. It was almost as if he was asleep.

"I can't guarantee that I can fix him," Gamer said. "I don't even know what I'm doing."

"Yeah but you're smart so you'd better try," Antibug snarled. She was in the "cooldown period" after using her Anti-Charm and so her yoyo wasn't working, but she was still prepared to force Gamer do to her bidding if she needed to. And if she couldn't then surely the other villains on her team could. Anyway, she'd get her powers back in a few minutes.

"Fine, I'll have a go," Gamer sighed. "But if the wiring has been physically destroyed then there really isn't much I can do. You might just have to kill him."

"Or just smash his police whistle and de-akumatize him. I'm not killing Sabrina's dad, that's just rude."

"Oh, so that's what you're trying to do. You can do that without fixing him, you know."

"Yeah, but he might be helpful for our team if you fix him. He can shoot lasers and things! That's helpful, right? And anyway, if I de-akumatize him before he's fixed, what if that means he'll be in a coma or something when he turns back into his normal self? Now hurry up and get started."

Gamer lifted the front panel off Rogercop's suit to reveal an internal mess of wires and cables. "This... might take a while..."

"Timebreaker, go get us some food," Antibug said.

"Why me?" asked Timebreaker, folding her arms. "I'm not hungry. You do it."

"It'll take the rest of us longer to find food, come on, you have _rollerskates_."

"Ugh, fine." At least it would be an excuse to get away from Antibug's whiny, grating voice for a while. It wasn't like there was much else to do here anyway.

There didn't seem to be as many places to get food here in the Northern Sector as there had been in the Central Sector so far. Previously the villains had just been breaking into the buildings that looked like shops and stealing all the good food they could find, but all the buildings in this area just looked like they were filled with nothing but boring corporate offices. Maybe Hawk Moth had done that on purpose to make sure all the villains would eventually have to return to the Central Sector and face each other. Well, they weren't _too_ far north at the moment. Maybe it wouldn't take too long to quickly zip back into the Central Sector to go get some snacks.

Timebreaker had just entered the Central Sector when she spotted what looked like some kind of dumpling with wings, hovering in the air a small distance away, observing her. She remembered reading in the case files that Kung Food could use his food to spy on people, and that was probably exactly what he was doing. Well, that certainly needed to be taken care of. Lady Wifi's secret cameras were already enough to deal with. Timebreaker took the dumpling in her hands and tore it to pieces. Then, for good measure, she took a bite out of it. It tasted quite good actually, though she decided not to eat any more on the off chance that it was poisoned.

There were still plenty of dead pigeons lying on the ground everywhere. It was a shame really. Timebreaker tried to feel bad about not being able to save the pigeons too (especially considering she was working so hard to save all the humans here), but she just didn't feel anything for them. They were only birds. Maybe after the end of the Hunger Games, when she would be turned back into Alix again, she would feel bad about it... But right now she didn't even care. Then again, she didn't care about any of her fellow villains either. There was no way she could deny that her reasons for saving everyone were pretty much completely selfish. Anyway, the dead pigeons were all Hawk Moth's fault for putting so many pigeons in such a dangerous situation. Another reason she wanted to punch Hawk Moth in the face.

Soon enough Timebreaker found a shop with some food in it. She stuffed some snacks into a plastic bag and then skated off again. She'd specifically chosen as much junk food as possible, knowing that Chloé (and therefore Antibug) hated that kind of thing. After all, it served Antibug right for always being such a bossy, stuck up jerk. And some tasty food would be a good treat considering how boring and awful it was in this arena.

Speaking of greasy food... Timebreaker could feel her hair getting greasy inside her helmet. She wanted to take it off, but then again she didn't. At least the other villains in the arena had giant menacing masks on their faces to make them look somewhat different from their civilian selves. Timebreaker, on the other hand, had nothing. If she took off her helmet she'd look exactly like she did as Alix, and then no one would take her seriously as a villain. It was hard enough getting people to take her seriously normally, what with her being shorter than everyone else. She couldn't afford anyone to think of her as anything less than she actually was - Timebreaker, a cruel, murderous villain who could kill anyone in a second, even bending time to her will. Without her "bug alien" helmet on, her entire reputation would be lost.

 

"Here's your food," Timebreaker said, throwing the bag at Antibug's feet once she got back to where the team was. Antibug sorted her way through the bag, looking more and more disgusted with each passing second.

"Chicken wings? Slimy noodles? _Pizza?_ Ugh, I can't eat this peasant food!"

"Starve, then," Timebreaker laughed.

"Hey guys, I think I'm finished," Gamer said, standing up and putting the panel back on Rogercop. "He should be working fine now."

"About time!" Vanisher said. "He probably must be quite hungry. If he eats, that is. I don't know how much of a robot or human he is. But in any case, _I'm_ hungry."

Rogercop suddenly snapped into focus, looking around. His eyes rested on where the sound of Vanisher's voice had been coming from. He blinked a few times.

"Don't," Vanisher whispered softly.

"Hi hungry," said Rogercop. "I'm Rogercop."

"Gamer what did you do?" Antibug said, shoving Gamer backwards, making him lose his balance in those huge Reflekta heels. "You were supposed to fix him, not have him start making dad jokes."

"He _is_ fixed," Gamer said, shoving Antibug back.

"But he's supposed to be some kind of police robot! Why would a robot be making jokes?"

Rogercop walked over and stood between Antibug and Gamer, holding them at arm's length from each other. "No fighting. My programming is back to normal now, and does not prevent me from making humorous comments."

"Told you he's fixed," Gamer huffed under his breath.

"Dad it's me!" Vanisher said. Her voice sounded like it was coming from right in front of him. "Guess what? I teamed up with Antibug and some others! We're doing the right thing - we're going to save everyone by de-akumatizing them all. If anyone dies then Timebreaker will just go back in time and change the past to keep everyone alive. Will you help us?"

"Of course," Rogercop replied, his voice completely monotone. "As the head of the police force of Paris, it is my duty to uphold the law. Murder is against the law and I will not tolerate it under any circumstances."

"Yeah, about that..." Vanisher muttered. "You might have to tolerate it a little bit. It's the only way Timebreaker can get enough energy to go back in time, if she needs to. But then she'll change the timeline so that no one will need to be murdered in the first place. If that makes any sense."

"I understand," Rogercop said. "That is a reasonable exception. Now, I require some form of nourishment. Where is the food."

They all turned around to see that Copycat, Reflekta and Timebreaker had already started eating.

"Uh guys, we have a very important task to do first!" Antibug said. "Rogercop, I need you to zap a pair of magic handcuffs onto Gamer here and make sure he doesn't try to run away or anything. And yes, I know he looks like Reflekta, but he's actually Gamer. I'm not going to do anything illegal to him, I swear."

Rogercop held up his arm and zapped Gamer. Red and blue handcuffs appeared around his wrists.

"You know," Gamer said, "I wasn't planning on running away. I'm not a coward. And anyway I know what you're doing, Vanisher literally just said it. You're de-akumatizing everyone so no one dies."

"Yeah, exactly," said Antibug. "Say, since you know our brilliant plan and everything, what do you think? Would you be willing to join our team if we get Reflekta to detransform you?"

"Not on your life. You did try to _strangle_ me earlier, you know. Just de-akumatize me and get me out of this stupid arena so I can get back to living my life in peace." He smiled suddenly. "Good luck, though. It's a neat plan. I did think about something like that, right at the start, if only because it's not nice of Hawk Moth to pit us all against each other like this, but I never thought it could ever happen. I thought you lot would be too selfish to even try. Good for you that you're actually bothering to do all this."

"Well of course," Antibug said, flipping her hair. "I'm not selfish at all, I'm going to be the hero and save everyone. Anyway, Reflekta get over here and detransform Gamer. And keep your filthy pizza fingers away from me."

Reflekta finished eating the pizza slice in her hand, then shot Gamer with a beam that transformed him back into what he had looked like earlier. Antibug took the huge glasses off his face and then snapped them in half. She purified the akuma, and Gamer turned back into Max and disappeared from the arena.

"Right, that's 6 down, only 20 to go," Antibug said. " _Now_ we can eat. I'll have some of that pizza crust, I think, just as long as I don't have to eat any of that gross cheesy stuff on top of the rest of it."

 

Once everyone had finished eating, the villain team set off to look for Evillustrator, planning to add him to their team if he was willing, and if not then to de-akumatize him.

"He can't have gone far," Vanisher said as the team wandered aimlessly around this area of the Northern Sector, looking through the windows of the buildings they passed. "He was really tired and injured after his big battle. I'm pretty certain he was somewhere around here, and I bet he still will be."

"It's so lucky we have you on our team, Vanisher," Antibug said. "I really do mean it. You've been so helpful. I think once we get out of here, I'll take you out shopping. We can buy you some new clothes - something _much_ more fashionable than what you usually wear."

"Really? Oh, thank you so much! That will so be-"

She was suddenly hit in the chest with an arrow. It disappeared after hitting her, but now her lips were visible - covered in a layer of black lipstick.

The others looked up to see Dark Cupid hovering in the sky high above them, laughing and getting ready to shoot another arrow.

"Reflekta, shoot him down!" Antibug commanded. Reflekta started aiming shots at Dark Cupid, but he quickly flew away and out of sight.

"Vanisher, are you alright?" Antibug asked, heading towards where she could see the sliver of black lipstick, floating as if in midair.

" _I'm_ certainly alright, Chloé, but you will never be!" The next second Vanisher had Antibug in a headlock. "I'm sick of you only appreciating me when I'm being _useful_. Now you're going to die, and your whole plan will have gone to waste!"

"Help me you idiots!" Antibug yelled at the others. She stomped hard on Vanisher's foot and managed to wrangle herself free, but the next second Vanisher had grabbed hold of her hair, so Antibug punched her, and the whole thing escalated into a full-on brawl.

"Anyone gonna stop them?" Copycat asked, stretching his arms above his head.

"Nah," Reflekta said. "Someone else can do it. I'd rather not break my nails."

"Hey, I think it's Rogercop's job to sort out fights," Timebreaker said. "Where is that guy anyway?"

"He went to check for Evillustrator in that big building," Copycat said. "He's got some fancy robot sensors that'll make it easier. It'll still take him a while, though." He leaned against the wall of the nearest building. "It's kind of satisfying, isn't it, seeing Antibug get beaten up?"

"Yep. It's pretty funny actually."

"I hate you all!" Antibug yelled at the bystanders, just before getting punched in the teeth.

"Serves you right!" Vanisher yelled back, immediately getting a hefty kick to the stomach.

Timebreaker sighed. "As great as this is, it won't be too good if those two kill each other. I guess I'll have to go back in time and stop Vanisher from getting hit by the arrow, won't I?"

"You may as well try," Reflekta said.

"And if I can't manage that then I guess I'll tell you guys to break up the fight and we'll just have to de-akumatize Vanisher."

"Why do we have to break up the fight? Why not you?"

"If I so much as lay a finger on any of you, you'll die. Speaking of which..."

Timebreaker tapped Reflekta with one hand and Copycat with the other, freezing them both in time and absorbing their energy. She skated a little closer to Antibug and Vanisher, but didn't make any more moves.

"What are you waiting for? If you're going to time travel then do it already!" Antibug screeched, spitting out a mouthful of blood along with a couple of teeth. She elbowed Vanisher to the side and tried to go towards Timebreaker, but Vanisher grabbed her foot and yanked her back, making her fall to the ground and smack her head painfully on the pavement. Vanisher jumped on her, with an odd crunching sound that might have been the break of a bone or two, then pinned her down and started punching her mercilessly.

"Yeah but this is entertaining," Timebreaker said. "I mean, I have enough energy. I don't really need to kill anyone else to go back in time. But you know... it might be fun to get in a few more deaths first. I've always wanted to beat someone up." She cracked her knuckles.

"Ugh, I hate you Timebreaker!" Antibug gasped out, trying desperately to avoid being pummelled with punches, and failing miserably. This fight was so unfair when she couldn't even _see_ her opponent properly. It felt like Vanisher had shattered her entire ribcage, and was now working on completely disfiguring her face. "I'm never trusting you again!"

"Too bad you won't remember this in the new timeline then." Timebreaker casually laid a hand on where she guessed Vanisher was, draining her energy. Vanisher slowly faded out of existence. Antibug sat up, breathing heavily, blood dripping out of the side of her mouth and the cuts and bruises on her face, all running down her neck and pooling in her lap. It felt strangely warm. Every single breath she took was agonizing. She was overcome with dizziness. Who knew Vanisher had the cruelty to do all this to her?

"Just go back in time already," she croaked.

"Yeah, yeah, in a minute. Let me have a bit of fun as a villain first, okay? It's getting tiring, being a goody two-shoes all the time. You got your chance to have a fight just now so it's my turn."

Timebreaker kicked Antibug in the side with the edge of her skate. Antibug keeled over, grabbing her yoyo, but lacking the energy to actually stand up and use it.

"There we go, that's better. It would be more of a fun fight if you actually _tried_ , though."

"Trust me, I would love to," Antibug said through gritted teeth. "If I wasn't - you know - at _death's door_ and everything. Thanks to you and that traitor, Vanisher." She coughed up a mouthful of blood. "Actually, Vanisher's not the traitor - it wasn't her fault, it was that stupid Dark Cupid's fault. If anyone you should kill him."

"I would kill that idiot if I could, and you know it," Timebreaker said, thinking back to the original bloodbath, where she hadn't even hesitated to do it. "But he's not here right now. You are."

"Are you doing this because you only see me as Antibug? What if you saw me as Chloé instead - your fabulous classmate. Would you still want to beat me up? Still want to _kill_ me?"

"Pal, right now I'm seeing you as nothing but Chloé in a fancy costume and a mask, and trust me, I definitely still want to beat you up and kill you."

Antibug slowly pushed herself onto her feet, stumbling a little. Her head felt like it was spinning. She clenched her yoyo in her fist, willing herself to ignore the pain. Blood was running into her eyes so she could barely see. She tried to ignore that too. "Fight me."

Without skipping a beat, Timebreaker punched Antibug in the side of the head. Antibug fell to the ground, unable to get up this time. Somewhere deep down Timebreaker felt a very small twinge of guilt - maybe Antibug didn't deserve to be beaten up _quite_ this much - but now was not the time to be weak, so she pushed the thought away. Instead she put one foot on Antibug, leaned over, and said, "I win." Then she slapped her across the face, absorbing her energy. Almost immediately, the sound of four cannons went off. Good - Hawk Moth was still keeping an eye on everything.

"Where is everyone," came the monotone sound of Rogercop's voice. He had just come out of the nearest building. "I did not find Evillustrator. But what has happened here."

"Oh, uh..." Timebreaker's fist was covered in Antibug's blood, so she hid it behind her back. "Dark Cupid shot your daughter with an arrow and she went berserk and beat the heck out of Antibug. So then I killed everyone so I can go back in time and stop that from happening. So yeah, I'll go do that now." She quickly skated off, hoping he wouldn't forget the plan and want to get revenge for killing his daughter. It wasn't like any of these villains were very trustworthy.

 

Timebreaker went back in time as far as she needed to, and realized that she still had some leftover energy. That might be useful for next time, since that way she wouldn't need to kill quite as many people. Or... she could just kill people anyway. It was far too much fun.

"What are you doing here?" Antibug asked her. "Who dies?"

" _You_ do," Timebreaker said. "Dark Cupid shoots Vanisher with an arrow, so Vanisher you'd better-"

It was too late, as Vanisher was hit with the arrow at that exact moment. Timebreaker rolled her eyes - it looked like they would have to de-akumatize Vanisher after all. The others looked up and noticed Dark Cupid.

"Reflekta, shoot him down!" Antibug called, and Dark Cupid flew away after Reflekta took a few shots at him.

"Don't go near Vanisher, she's gonna beat you up," the older Timebreaker warned Antibug. "Just use your Anti-Charm so we can de-akumatize her."

"What, already? But she's so helpfu-"

"Just shut up and do what I say, or you'll end up with your blood all over my fist." Timebreaker held up her fist, stained red from the events of the previous timeline. That seemed to be a good enough threat.

"Anti-Charm!" Antibug shouted, throwing her yoyo in the air. The object she got was a bucket of paint. "That's self-explanatory," she said, shrugging.

"Don't think you can defeat me, Chloé!" Vanisher yelled, trying to tackle her. Antibug whipped round and dumped the bucket of paint upside down on her head. Vanisher stepped back, taking off the bucket and gasping for breath, now covered in red paint and completely visible.

"Time to de-evilize," Antibug muttered, throwing the yoyo at Vanisher and trapping her in the string, holding her still. She walked up to her, took off the brooch, then dropped it on the ground and stepped on it. The akuma flew out and Antibug quickly purified it, having to avoid a raging Vanisher - now free of the yoyo string - leaping at her and trying to hit her. Within a few seconds Vanisher turned into Sabrina, and then disappeared from the arena.

"Did you... did you see that?" Antibug asked the others. "Sabrina still has the black lipstick. She still... hates me."

"Maybe if you do that "Miraculous Anti-Charm" thing with the paint bucket then it'll cure her," Copycat suggested.

"Yeah, maybe." Antibug picked up the paint bucket and threw it in the air. The following wave of magic caused the two Timebreakers to merge into one, but there was no way of knowing whether or not Sabrina was back to normal now. Antibug frowned. "I hope that worked. I don't want Sabrina to hate me forever. She's my best friend. There must be _some_ way of getting rid of that curse, even if my powers didn't fix it."

"Once we de-akumatize Dark Cupid it'll probably go away," Copycat reassured her.

"Yeah, and also..." Timebreaker started, but then she stopped.

"What is it?"

"Well, something Kim once told me. He doesn't remember much from being Dark Cupid the first time but he said he hit Chat Noir with an arrow, who turned evil and tried to kill Ladybug. Then Ladybug broke the curse by kissing him."

Antibug gasped. "WHAT? Are you telling me Ladynoir is canon, and we didn't know THIS WHOLE TIME?"

"I don't know, that's just what Kim told me! He might not have remembered right, and anyway, he always likes showing off, he might have been lying-"

"Of course Ladynoir's canon," Copycat said. "Chat Noir told me himself."

"This is an outrage!" Antibug said. "How can I not have known this? I'm Ladybug's number one fan!"

"So as I was saying," Timebreaker continued, "if nothing else works, you could just kiss Sabrina."

Antibug blushed. "I'm not interested in kissing _anyone_ right now, thank you very much. I'm not one of those sappy, Evillustrator-type or Princess Fragrance-type villains."

"Neither am I," Timebreaker said, "and not as a civilian either. Anyway, I remember from the future that Evillustrator's not in the building that Rogercop's currently searching, so we'd better look somewhere else."

"Yes, alright."

The team waited for Rogercop to return, then they continued their search. Timebreaker realized that, alarmingly, Antibug's powers had not removed the blood stains on her villain suit. They hadn't even fixed the crack in her helmet that Darkblade had caused, and she hadn't noticed it until now because she was already getting used to it being there. It seemed that the merging timelines caused Timebreaker's appearance to default to that of whichever Timebreaker present had been around the longest, no matter what sort of damaged state she was in. If Antibug's powers couldn't fix all that... well, she'd better try not to get injured.


	10. Chapter 10

Back in Hawk Moth's lair, the curse on Sabrina had indeed lifted with Antibug's powers. Thank goodness - she didn't really want to kiss anyone.

"You'd better take a shower," Lila told her immediately, looking at all the red paint that was still covering her. "And if you're confused about what's going on, we'll get you up to speed afterwards. Everyone seems to have come back with different degrees of memory about what happened."

"No, I remember," Sabrina mumbled, looking at the screens. She almost wished she was back there. Things had actually seemed to be going _right_ before that arrow hit. "I was akumatized again, Hawk Moth made us all fight each other like a Hunger Games, some of us were teaming up to save everyone... Chloé was still treating me nicely even though we were villains, I think..."

"Yes, but you'd really better have a shower," Lila urged. "Sorry, but the paint stinks."

 

It was late evening by the time the villain team managed to locate Evillustrator. The sun had gone down and the arena was mostly dark, and yet there was a light on in the far distance. That was unusual, since none of these buildings actually had working electricity.

"I bet that's the tomato," Antibug said. "He can't draw in the dark so he must have drawn himself a light source."

Copycat chuckled. "Did you just call him a tomato?"

"Of course! Haven't you seen his hair? Maybe not when he's akumatized, but when he's normal. He literally looks like a tomato."

"I honestly don't even know what he looks like when he's normal. I don't even know who he _is_. Everyone in this arena seems to be from your class at school and you know them already, it's unfair."

"Yes, it is," mused Antibug. "Hawk Moth really hates our class, doesn't he..."

"Or maybe it's because you're the one who's always bullying everyone, so it only makes sense that our class is always getting akumatized," Timebreaker muttered.

"Excuse me?" Antibug grabbed her yoyo and began swinging it around. "How _dare_ you insinuate that-"

"Do you _really_ wanna fight me, Antibug? May I remind you that my fist is covered in your blood right now? Just shut up. Let's go find the tomato."

Rogercop and Copycat, with their night vision, mostly led the way. The light source was further away than they thought - it was actually coming from the Southern Sector, of all places. When they got near enough they saw that it was coming from the top of a small, house-like building, one of the many that filled this sector. Creeping even closer, they saw that Evillustrator was up on the roof, next to his crudely drawn light source, fast asleep.

"Why is he just sleeping there?" Antibug whispered. "It's so easy for someone to attack him! What if it's some kind of trap? Rogercop, zap him."

Rogercop aimed his arms upwards and then shot a pair of handcuffs onto Evillustrator's wrists, waking him up immediately.

"What's going o-"

"Bring him down here," Antibug commanded. Rogercop blew on his whistle and the handcuffs dragged Evillustrator onto the ground in front of the team.

"Let go of me," Evillustrator said, though without much conviction. His eyes were drooping and his purplish skin was greyer than normal. That wasn't even mentioning the bandages on his arms, or the bruises on his face, or the fact that his hat was almost torn to shreds.

"We're not going to kill you," Antibug said. "In fact, you're a nice villain, right? We'll let you join our team."

"No thanks," Evillustrator replied. "You're all villains. I don't trust you."

"Um, you're a villain too, you know."

He shook his head. "Not an evil one like all of you."

"Yes you are! I have personal proof! First of all, that time on your birthday when you got akumatized, I found out on the Ladyblog that you broke into Marinette's house like some _stalker_ and then guilt-tripped her into going out with you! That doesn't sound like a good guy to me."

"It wasn't like that... I didn't guilt-trip her into-"

"And then you tried to drown her and Chat Noir when they were just trying to de-akumatize you," Antibug continued, counting off on her fingers.

"I know that wasn't Marinette's fault, I was just angry because she promised that-"

"And _then_ , you broke into my house and TRIED TO KILL ME," Antibug finished, folding her arms. "Oh, and that's not even getting into whatever you've been up to in here. Trying to kill Climatika?"

"If I wanted to kill her she'd be dead," Evillustrator said. "I was trying _not_ to kill her. I don't want to kill anyone, I'm not some murderer like the rest of you. I just attacked her so she wouldn't get to the Power Tower and make a cyclone. But then she started trying to kill me, so I had to fight her. I told you, I'm not interested in killing anyone. Hawk Moth can't make me do it."

"Yes, and that's why we need you on our team," Antibug said. "We don't want to kill anyone either, because we hate Hawk Moth's guts, and how nasty would it be if you won the Games and then realized all your friends were dead? Not like you have any friends, but you know what I mean. So we've just been trying to de-akumatize everyone. That's why you haven't been hearing any cannons - there just haven't been any deaths. Or apparently there have, but Timebreaker always went back in time and sorted everything out."

"Why do you need my help?" Evillustrator asked. "Why don't you just de-akumatize me? I'm tired."

"We need your powers, of course. There are still 19 villains in this arena, and you've already managed to de-akumatize one by yourself. You can literally create _anything_ by drawing it. You could draw us a taser or something, and we could use it to get the others without killing them - if we can get close enough, obviously. Things like that. So yeah, if you're tired then go to sleep for now, but you're going to join our team. That's not a choice. Seriously, it's not. You have to. We are absolutely okay with torturing you until you do. Timebreaker, show him the fist."

Timebreaker held up her blood-covered fist, the red stain dimly visible in the light. Threatening to torture Evillustrator hadn't actually been officially part of the plan, but at least it would work. And that small taste of violence in the previous timeline... scarily enough, it had left Timebreaker wanting more.

"So yeah, do what we say," Antibug said.

"Alright, fine," Evillustrator replied. "But for the record, I don't approve of torture either."

"Oh, don't be so weak. Rogercop, you can release him."

Rogercop took the handcuffs back and Evillustrator immediately sat down, slumping over. He looked exhausted.

"What were you doing asleep with such a bright light next to you anyway?" Antibug asked him. "It's like you _wanted_ people to attack you."

"I just drew it hoping it would keep me awake. I didn't mean to fall asleep."

"Why not?"

"It's none of your business," he snapped.

"Alright, fine, sheesh." Antibug turned to the others. "Anyway team, I think we've done a good enough job for today. There'll probably be food somewhere in these houses. Let's get some dinner then go to sleep."

 

"Do you think he's getting nightmares about the weather battle too?" Lila asked Aurore. Everyone was crowded around the screens, watching everything intently. Even D'Argencourt had managed to limp over to watch.

"It would explain why he doesn't want to sleep," Aurore shrugged. "It's probably even worse for him actually - he remembers it properly and everything."

"And what do you guys think Timebreaker did to Antibug in the last timeline to get all that blood on her hands? I'm betting she knocked some teeth out, or maybe-"

"Manon is _right here_ ," Aurore whispered.

"Oh yeah, whoops, sorry."

"It's okay, you can talk about punching and stuff!" Manon said, beaming. "I'm not scared."

"You're too young," Lila said sternly. "And look, isn't it your bedtime now? You should go to sleep."

Manon giggled. "You can't tell me what to do."

"Alright fine, stay awake. But you'll get tired later. And stop eating sweets!" Lila took the last sweet from the bowl that Manon had been trying to keep to herself. Manon put the empty bowl on her head like a helmet.

"Look, I'm Prince Ali!"

"I've met him," Lila said absent-mindedly, not really meaning it. "Anyway, how soon do you think Lady Wifi's going to-"

"I've just realized something," Max said suddenly, standing up. He had been very quiet the past few hours, mostly just watching the Games on the screens and not doing anything else.

"What is it?"

"The fact that no one's died yet is actually _more_ symbolic of the real Hunger Games than what would have happened if Hawk Moth's Games progressed normally." He pushed his glasses up and cleared his throat. "In the original _Hunger Games_ books, one of the central themes is rebellion, correct? Such as preferring to die in the arena as oneself, not be used as the Capitol's pawns, the trick with the berries to deny the Capitol a victor, those sorts of things. Sure enough there were deaths, but one can assume that if there were a loophole to allow more people to escape alive, they would have taken advantage of it. And they did, in fact, when they pulled out the berries, forcing the Capitol to allow two victors rather than one, and only 22 deaths instead of 23."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Manon said, looking up at him with her head tilted to one side.

"Good, I'd be more concerned if you did," said Max. "In any case, Hawk Moth is currently forcing the villains to fight each other against their will, much like the Capitol did with the tributes in the original series. Of course, some villains have more murderous tendencies than others and will gladly commit murder despite being against Hawk Moth - much like the tributes from the so-called "career" districts in the original, who are still very much victims despite appearing otherwise. What I am trying to say is that Hawk Moth, in trying to create a Hunger Games for himself, has taken on the role of the Capitol, and so his "tributes" are acting accordingly. They are _rebelling_. Because that's exactly what happened in the original _Hunger Games_. And if Hawk Moth really thought that everything would go according to his little plan and that his villains wouldn't rise up at every chance, then he very much missed the whole point of the series that he loves so much. It's not about the Games themselves. It's about the fight for freedom. The rebellion. And that is exactly what he is finding out, the hard way."

Lila nodded. "Yes, you're right. I was honestly surprised at first, that villains like Timebreaker and Antibug would even think about saving anyone but themselves. But when you put it like that..."

"I still don't get it," Manon said, stifling a yawn.

"I'll explain it simply," Lila said. "In the actual _Hunger Games_ books and movies, a bunch of bad people called the Capitol made lots of teenagers fight each other, like what's happening right now. But the teens were angry about it, so they tried to do everything they could to ruin it, and eventually they succeeded. Max is saying that it's happening right now, with our Akuma Hunger Games. We're all angry at Hawk Moth, so everyone's trying to ruin it. And it's funny because even though Hawk Moth loves those books, he didn't realize that the whole point is that you're supposed to be cheering for the kids who are trying to ruin the Games, not the bad people who made them in the first place. And since Hawk Moth is making these Games now, that makes him the bad guy, and it means the akumatized villains are the good guys. That's why they're saving everyone."

"Oh." Manon blinked. "Okay. Can I have some more sweets now?"

Lila sighed and gave Manon the last sweet. Hopefully all of this wouldn't have a lasting effect on the poor kid. At least Manon seemed to be coping well, not even bothered by everything that was happening. She really was treating it like a game.

 

"Are you _sure_ you're not going to sleep?" Timebreaker asked. She was first on watch for a few hours, and most of the others were already asleep.

"I'm sure," Evillustrator replied.

"You don't trust me, that's what it is."

"Of course. I don't trust any of you. But you're the one who could kill me in a split second, so I'll wait until someone else is on watch before I go to sleep."

Timebreaker laughed quietly. "You're _scared_ of me. That's hilarious. And look, as much as I'd love to kill all of you, I'm not going to. I feel like Alix wouldn't end up very happy if I did that."

Evillustrator frowned. "But you _are_ Alix."

"No I'm not, I'm Timebreaker. I couldn't care less about killing all of you. Trust me, I even killed _you_ in one timeline. But Alix isn't like that at all, she may be wild but she's not going to harm anyone. She's _pathetic_."

"She's not pathetic!"

"Look, I know we've got that whole thing about being nice to each other since we're the only kids in the class without real close friends, but you don't have to defend my civilian self where it's not needed. Don't you feel _different_ when you're Evillustrator? Like you're a whole new person?"

Evillustrator shook his head. "No, not at all. I know I feel somewhat different right now than when I'm Nath, but... I'm still Nath. I know you all call me "Evillustrator", but it doesn't make a difference to me. I'm the same person. I just have superpowers now. And I suppose I'm less shy. But I still don't want to kill anyone, I still feel bad about bad things I did, like getting mad at Marinette when she was just trying to help me..."

"Do you still like her?"

He blushed. "Does it matter if I do?"

"Jeez, Antibug was right, you _are_ sappy. In fact it's like I'm just talking to Nathaniel himself, you're literally no different. How do you even _cope?_ "

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you don't feel any different than normal, and you're suddenly shoved into this gladiator fight with no warning and forced to kill people? Like, at least I feel like a villain, so I can just... do what I want, I guess, it doesn't make a difference to me. Alix, on the other hand, would _hate_ this. But if you're just Nathaniel, how do you... not hate this?"

"I _do_ hate this!" Evillustrator hugged his knees to his chest. "Why do you think I'm not going to sleep? My subconscious is trying to tear my mind apart. I don't want to be here."

He seemed to be on the verge of tears. It looked like he was asking for sympathy, or perhaps for Timebreaker to tell him that it was okay and he would be de-akumatized as soon as possible, or some words of reassurance. Too bad he was talking to a supervillain.

"Get it together," she said. "None of the rest of us want to be here either, that's why we're all mad at Hawk Moth, obviously. At least we're not showing our weaknesses, unlike you. You're such a _loser_. I don't know why Hawk Moth gave the best powers to the worst villain."

As soon as she saw the look on his face she felt a small pang of guilt again. What was it with the guilt today? First Antibug, now this. It didn't feel good at all.

"Alright, that was a bit harsh," she said quickly. "Oh my gosh, are you crying? Stop it. You're a _villain_ , for crying out loud."

"I'm sorry," Evillustrator mumbled.

"Don't apologize. Listen - do you want me to help toughen you up or something? Because in all honesty, you're not going to cope well in this team if you're going to be an emotional wreck the whole time."

"I just wish you'd let me leave."

"That's not happening. You have _game-breaking_ powers, dude, we need you."

"You wouldn't really torture me, would you?"

"Yeah we would," Timebreaker said, though she felt somewhat guilty again when she said it. "You saw the blood fist, right? Want me to show you again?"

"No thanks." He wiped his eyes, no longer crying so much. "How did that even happen, anyway? What did you do?"

Good - here was an opportunity to test this wimp's toughness. "Vanisher was part of our team, and in a previous timeline she got hit with a Dark Cupid arrow and started attacking Antibug. None of us bothered to intervene because we all hate Antibug - you probably will too soon enough, she's awful. Anyway Antibug was really getting battered and I knew I needed to go back in time and sort things out, so I killed the others, but then... I didn't kill Vanisher or Antibug yet. I just watched Vanisher beat the _hell_ out of Antibug for a good few minutes. We're talking broken bones, teeth punched out, mouth bleeding, face bleeding, bruises everywhere..."

Evillustrator winced. "And you just let it happen?"

"Yeah, it was fun. Then I killed Vanisher. By that time Antibug was beaten to a bloody pulp, so I just, you know, finished the job."

"You _beat her to death?_ "

"Nah, that would take too long. I beat her up a bit more, then just knocked her unconscious and  stole her time energy. But hey, if you think that's gross, get a load of the original bloodbath! You have Kung Food, pecked to death by killer pigeons, and then there was Climatika, who sliced off Pixelator's face with an icicle, then speared him through the chest with a bigger icicle-"

"I don't want to hear anymore," Evillustrator said. "How can you honestly find all that enjoyable?"

Timebreaker shrugged. "I'm just a very nasty villain, I guess. According to Alya's Ladyblog I had one of the highest death tolls. I mean, I don't tell many people this, but back when I was akumatized on my birthday, I killed Chat Noir himself in one timeline. It was kind of an accident, but still. Ladybug was _furious_. I can't even believe I remember it."

"Chat Noir, really? I remember you killing a lot of people, I was there, but that's terrible... Don't you ever feel bad about it?"

"Oh yeah, sure, when I'm Alix. I don't feel bad about it right now, of course. I mean, I guess I should. Last time I didn't care because I just wanted my watch back so badly. Right now I just... I'm just really mad at Hawk Moth, I guess. You probably relate to that, at least."

"Yes."

"Well that's one thing we actually have in common, aside from being the class loners - not a reputation I want to keep, by the way. Oh and you got akumatized on your birthday too. Wasn't fun, was it..." She stood up suddenly. "Anyway, do you wanna be tough or not? If you're going to stay awake then I may as well try and make you a valuable member of this team. We can't have you crying all the time. It's time for training."

"What exactly are you going to do?" Evillustrator asked apprehensively.

"I'm going to be as mean to you as possible, and you're going to have to bear it."

He gulped. "Is this really necessary?"

"Look, I'm trying to _help_ you. I'm a villain, I'm not exactly good at being nice, this is the best I can do. Are you in or not?"

He knew he didn't really have a choice. The word "torture" was still swimming around in his mind rather uncomfortably. "Fine, I'll do it," he muttered.


	11. Chapter 11

Early the next morning, Evillustrator was already awake. He told Reflekta, who was supposed to be on watch, to just go back to sleep - he could take care of it. He was supposed to be tough now, after all.

It wasn't like he was going to get any more sleep anyway, despite how tired he felt. It would probably just be nightmares again and he was getting sick of it. That weather battle just would not stop haunting him. He probably wouldn't be able to see Aurore the same way ever again. In fact that didn't just apply to Aurore, that was beginning to apply to everyone here. As much as he tried, he just couldn't see these villains as separate people - he saw them as twisted versions of their normal selves, his own _classmates_. It had been especially bad with Timebreaker last night, who had been having a blast throwing insult after insult at him until he felt completely broken. He knew logically that this cruel, cruel villain was not really Alix, yet he couldn't help feeling like it really was her. Yes, of course Alix wasn't exactly an optimistic ray of sunshine like Marinette or Rose, not even polite like Adrien, but she wasn't a _monster_. Yet he was starting to see her that way.

On the bright side he was feeling better this morning than he had felt yesterday, or rather, he seemed to not be feeling much of anything at all. It was as if shedding all those frightened tears last night had left him completely empty. He was still tired, he still felt a vague sense of fear and dread, but overall he was just _numb_. Maybe Timebreaker's training really had worked. Well, in the short-run at least.

The sun slowly rose higher in the sky, and the rest of the villains soon woke up. They had breakfast together - Evillustrator didn't want any, though.

"You'd better eat, you look really sick," Antibug said, shoving a bowl of cereal at him.

"I'm really not hungry."

"Come on! You need energy! We don't want you suddenly fainting on us in the middle of battle. I will _not_ be happy if that happens, you know."

She glared at him - it was the same expression on her face that she'd had the previous night, when she was forcing him into joining her team like some kind of press-gang. He took the bowl of cereal without another word.

"That's better. Now hurry up and eat."

He really wasn't hungry, but he made himself eat the entire thing as quick as he could. Meanwhile the other villains discussed plans - rather violent sounding ones.

"We should probably recruit Princess Fragrance at some point, I'm sure she'd be happy to join us... How about Mime? He might be useful. Is it worth it, forcing him to join us? Or would it be better to de-akumatize him? I mean he's Mylène's dad but no one would feel bad about hurting him, right? ... We'll have to see about Lady Wifi at some point too, now that we know she's got her cameras all over the place... at least she didn't let Darkblade kill you in that lift. Maybe she'll be on our side already, no threats needed... Reflekta, you've still got that pointy stick, haven't you... might come in useful for causing as much pain as we need to..."

"I'm glad you've stopped being emo," Timebreaker suddenly said to Evillustrator. "I thought you'd be crying your eyes out at all this."

"I think I'm desensitized to it now," he muttered.

"Good job," Antibug said. "And you're happy being part of this team?"

He took a deep breath. "Yep."

"Excellent! I'm glad we didn't have to resort to torture."

Evillustrator didn't say anything. It seemed that the others were all under the impression that torture was only physical.

"Anyway," Antibug continued, "if you're done eating, I've got a little task for you. I want you to draw yourself a jetpack and then have a quick flight round and see if you can find any other villains in the vicinity. Then come back and tell us about it."

Evillustrator nodded. He put the empty bowl down, drew himself a jetpack, then flew off into the air.

"What did you even _do_ to him last night?" Antibug asked.

"I was just really mean to him," Timebreaker said, shrugging. "He was being a wimp and crying and stuff, so I pretty much just acted like Chloé Bourgeois until he snapped out of it."

Antibug put her hands on her hips. "Are you calling me a bully?"

"Yeah, pretty much. But hey, it worked, didn't it? He's alright now."

"If by "alright" you mean "more of an emotionless robot than Rogercop here", then yes. But I suppose this is better than him moping around everywhere like some 18th century emo poet."

"There's nothing wrong with being emo," Reflekta piped up. Antibug chuckled.

"Spoken like a true emo."

 

Evillustrator soon returned to the group. "I saw Pharaoh not too far north east of here. No one else seems to be nearby."

"Ah, good," Antibug said. "Right team, what are we going to do about Pharaoh? Anything bad?"

"Yo, that's my _brother_ ," Timebreaker said. "You're _not_ going to hurt him."

"Oh, so you were perfectly fine about hurting just about anyone else, even your own classmates, but as soon as it's a family member we're suddenly not allowed to do anything? You're getting weak, Timebreaker, I was just starting to have some respect for you."

"Listen, you didn't hurt or threaten Sabrina's dad, did you? And you let Reflekta join the group on the condition you don't hurt Princess Fragrance. Well I'm the one who started this group in the first place, and _my_ condition is that if Pharaoh's unwilling to join us then we de-akumatize him. No threats or torture allowed."

Antibug laughed. "Alright fine, but really Timebreaker, I didn't peg you being a softie..."

Timebreaker held her blood-covered fist in front of Antibug's face. "That's _your_ blood, by the way, Antibug. I punched it right out of you. Still think I'm a softie? Maybe you don't get it, since you're always such a bully that no one cares about you, and _especially_ no one in here. But if there's one thing for sure, if I could only save one person in this arena other than myself, it would be Jalil. Because Alix's life will _not_ be happy if she knows she willingly let her own brother be hurt or killed."

"Yeah, fine, I said alright!" Antibug stepped back. "Stop shoving that darned fist in my face. I suppose you're right, anyway. I made Gamer fix Sabrina's dad, after all, so fair enough, we won't hurt your brother."

"Thanks." Timebreaker tried not to sound as conflicted as she felt. Part of her really _was_ okay with hurting or killing Pharaoh - the guy was so annoying powerful, after all, it only served him right. But somewhere, _very_ deep down, she knew doing so would make her feel worse. She didn't care very much about most people in this arena, not even her classmates. In fact, at the moment she didn't even care about her nerdy big brother or his overpowered akumatized self. The problem was that she knew _he_ cared about _her_ , and that would make all the difference, especially after these Games were over and she was back to her normal self. She wouldn't be able to live with herself if she'd let any harm come to the only person here who truly cared about her. And yes, as a civilian she did love her brother. He was _family_. She just couldn't hurt him.

"Well, let's go see if he's willing to join our team," Antibug said. "He's very powerful, it'll be helpful. Timebreaker, you should probably be the one to talk to him."

"Yeah, okay. Evillustrator, show us where he is."

 

Lady Wifi turned away from her phone screen and looked at Kung Food, who was busy eating what looked like leaves. "Do you think you're healed yet?"

"It will take time. It is a good thing I have these all these herbs I can use."

"Yes." Lady Wifi walked over to the window and looked outside. "I think it might soon be time for us to enact our plan."

"You really trust those villains?"

"I'm not entirely sure. I'd rather be safe than sorry. But thinking about what I just saw on the screens..." She shook her head. "It's far from perfect. I've read _The Hunger Games_ , I know what happens. Having all those villains in a team together is really just a bomb waiting to go off. They all hate each other, I can tell. It's only a matter of time before someone snaps, and the whole "save everyone" plan goes out the window. I mean, did you see Evillustrator? He's an empty shell now. They've traumatized the life right out of him. There's no knowing whether or not it's safe to go anywhere near them. Part of me thinks the "blood fist" is really a mistake from another timeline - violence that got out of hand, something like that. And yet..." She tapped her phone and flicked the screen view to another camera, getting a better view of the villain team.

"And yet what?"

"And yet I want to see how they're going to deal with Pharaoh. None of them have really met him before, they don't know what he's like. Timebreaker seems to just think he'll be like how her brother normally is. But I remember the truth - he once tried to make me a human sacrifice, after all. He really believes he is the incarnation of Akhenaten, he won't recognize any relatives of his. I thought Timebreaker wouldn't treat him differently from any other villain in here, considering how cruel she seems to be, but that doesn't appear to be the case. It's not going to be easy for her to face the fact that her own family member won't want anything to do with her. Will she change her mind about not hurting him then?"

Lady Wifi clutched her phone tightly in her hand. The truth was that she wasn't really thinking about Pharaoh, she was thinking about a certain family member of hers who had been consumed by villainous tendencies. Tears stung her eyes... it wasn't pleasant to remember. How could Animan have tried to attack her, when all she wanted was to team up with him? Did he really think Mr Pigeon would be a better teammate than his own _daughter?_ And it wasn't even that he didn't recognize her, because he did. But he chose to give in to Hawk Moth's game, to give in to his drive to do evil no matter what, to destroy his own family for a chance at glory. And, what hurt the most, he had chosen to trust Mr Pigeon over her.

Well, she wasn't making a mistake like that again. She was going to be _extra_ careful about teaming up with people now. No more jumping to conclusions.

"Anyway," she continued, blinking the tears away, "I was naive. Family ties mean nothing here. Rogercop and Vanisher got along well by luck. After all, Horrificator and Mime haven't even interacted at all yet, have they? So if Timebreaker really thinks right now that Pharaoh being her brother means anything at all, I want to see how she'll react when she realizes it doesn't make a difference. He's just a villain like any other."

"And if she decides to harm him?"

"Then I don't trust her - we get rid of her."


	12. Chapter 12

Pharaoh was already prepared before Timebreaker even got near him.

"If you come any closer, I will shockwave blast you and break your spine." Neither his voice nor face portrayed any emotion, but the way his hands were held out in front of him plainly told that he was absolutely ready to kill.

"Relax, I'm not gonna come any closer," Timebreaker said, from almost the other end of the street. The other villains were hidden behind a nearby building. "Actually I was gonna ask if you wanted to team up."

"Why would I team up with a pathetic worm like you? I am much too good for you."

Pathetic worm? _Ouch_. "Because I'm your sister, obviously," she replied, trying not to sound as hurt as she felt. She had kind of assumed he would be willing to team up with her from the start - she hadn't realized he might not really want to.

"Oh, I see. You are the small pink-haired one I often looked after when in my previous form. However, I am now the great pharaoh Akhenaten, and I have no blood relation to you."

"Of course you do! Being akumatized isn't going to change the fact that you're my brother, sheesh. Anyway, I'm not gonna kill you, or anyone else for that matter. We'll just de-akumatize everyone, that way when you're back to normal you won't have to worry about your poor little sister having no classmates left."

"I already told you, you are no sister of mine. You are nothing but a weak, pitiful excuse for a villain. This body I inhabit now is my true form. I will use my powers to win this contest, then I can get my revenge on that little insect Ladybug and bring back my precious Nefertiti. Nothing you say can stop me from obliterating you - I have waited far too long for this." He brought his hands together in an almighty shockwave clap, though luckily Timebreaker was standing much too far away to be affected by it.

"Are you kidding me?" she snapped, feeling rage flooding into her. "Listen, I'm a very murderous villain, you know that, _everyone_ knows that, I love killing people and hurting people and whatever - but even I'm not going to be as vile as to purposely attack my own _brother_ , the guy who would always babysit me for as long as I can remember and make sure I'm not getting into trouble and -"

She stopped suddenly, acutely aware that her eyes were burning. What on earth was that feeling? ... Oh yes, _tears_... But no, she couldn't start crying, not here, not now. The other villains were there watching, and she had a reputation to keep up. Last night she had belittled Evillustrator for being emotional, there was no way she was going to let the same thing happen to her now. Why did she feel like crying, anyway? It wasn't like she cared about anyone here in this arena...

"Seriously though," she said, a little more calmly. "If you join my team, I'll... I'll give you the watch. That one dad gave me on my birthday. It's really cool, and historic, and..."

"You fool. Why would I need such an object when I have limitless powers at my fingertips?"

Pharaoh changed the mask on his face and threw a time bubble down the street. Timebreaker easily dodged it.

"Because you _want_ it, that's why! I _know_ you're annoyed he gave it to me instead of you, even though you pretend not to be!"

"Be quiet," said Pharaoh, sending more time bubbles at her, this time quite a few. He began advancing slowly down the street. "You know _nothing_. It is not up to you to decide how much others care about something. And I don't want your watch. Whether or not you offer it to me, I will kill you all the same. Like I said, you are no sister of mine."

"You know, you're making it so difficult for me to not attack you," Timebreaker said. She could feel her eyes filling up with tears - but _no_ , she was _not_ going to let herself cry. "How can you be like this? That watch is so precious to me that I got akumatized over it, but I'd honestly willingly give it away if it meant you'd actually admit to being my family, you idiot. Do you seriously think Hawk Moth is gonna let you complete your creepy ritual thing if you win? All he'll do is turn you back into Jalil, and then you're going to have to deal with the fact that you murdered your own sister. And how's that gonna feel, huh? How much is dad going to hate you?"

Pharaoh didn't seem to be listening. He threw out a barrage of bubbles, so many that the street was filled with them. Timebreaker could barely see through the tears in her eyes, but she somehow managed to avoid all the bubbles by instinct. Her throat felt funny, like maybe she should stop talking. But how else was she going to get through to him? Her brother had to be in there somewhere.

"I'm still not going to fight you," she said, though not very loud - she could feel her voice starting to tremble, and there was no way she was letting anyone hear that. "Trust me, I _want_ to, but I won't. It doesn't matter what you say, you're my own _brother_. You've got to be the only person in this arena who actually _cares_ about me."

"I think it seems to be the other way round," Pharaoh replied, his tone sounding icy cold all of a sudden.

"What? No, I'm completely heartless, you all know it! I kill people for fun - I even beat up Antibug in another timeline just because I could! There's no one I care about, not even family. I know you're my brother, but that doesn't mean I..."

Up until now Pharaoh had looked farther away than he actually was, since the view through all the bubbles was distorted. But now he was close enough that she could properly see him. His eyes were completely blank and his expression was neutral - there was no way to know what he was thinking.

"If you really don't care about me, you wouldn't hesitate to kill me, like how I am about to kill you," Pharaoh said slowly, before suddenly making another shockwave clap.

The blast pushed Timebreaker into one of the time bubbles. She couldn't properly see what was happening on the outside, not just because of the sides of the bubble making everything look blurry, but also the fact that hot tears were starting to roll down her cheeks, no matter how stoic she tried to be. From what little she could see, it seemed like the other villains were doing something. Maybe they were attacking him. She knew she ought to feel pleased about that, but she just felt disappointed. Betrayed. Hurt.

She didn't know how long it took for her bubble to be popped. All she knew is that once she was freed, she could see that Rogercop had shot laser handcuffs onto Pharaoh, and Antibug - having crushed the pendant in her fist - was purifying the akuma. After a few seconds Pharaoh detransformed into Jalil, then vanished from the arena.

Just a few seconds' glimpse of her brother as a civilian had been enough - Timebreaker burst into tears. She couldn't deny it any longer, she _did_ care about her brother, she _wasn't_ as heartless as she thought. The fact that he'd still attacked her, not even acknowledging her as his sister, it hurt more than any physical pain possibly could. It was as if everything was turning out to be the opposite of what she'd expected. She thought she didn't care about anyone, that she was the most heartless, apathetic villain of all, and it wasn't true. She had been so sure that her brother would be kind to her at least, considering how much he cared about her as a civilian, but instead he had tried to kill her. Part of her almost wished he _had_ managed to kill her - at least it would be less painful than this. She was so unaccustomed to feeling emotional as a villain that she wondered if it was even possible for someone to feel this hurt without outright dying from it.

And yet, she still couldn't hate him. He was her _brother_ , after all. It wasn't even his fault. It was Hawk Moth's fault - Hawk Moth had been the one who turned her brother into a complete monster, all for fun. He probably thought that watching siblings fight each other to the death was _fun_ or something. Well... at least Jalil was safe now...

"Look who's crying now," Antibug said, smirking. "Do we need to give you the Evillustrator treatment then? I knew you were soft."

Reflekta suddenly pointed towards the north. "Look! It's Princess Fragrance!"

Timebreaker tried to slide her fingers under her helmet to wipe away the tears so she could see. Above the Power Tower, far away in the distance, a big pink cloud was spreading. Clearly that was Princess Fragrance's perfume.

"Ugh, that's annoying," Antibug said. "If Princess Fragrance got to the top then it means she wins because she can just brainwash us all with that rotten excuse for perfume. We need to do something about it. Evillustrator, how about some nose pegs or something? You can draw those, right?"

There was a sudden distant explosion sound, followed by a cannon. The perfume disappeared in a fiery blast.

"Is she... dead?" Reflekta asked tentatively.

"Sounds like she's been blown up or something," Antibug said, shrugging. "In that case, I suppose _someone_ will have to go back in time and change things, if said someone has stopped being a loser wimp." She turned to look at Timebreaker.

"Caring about my own brother does not make me a wimp," Timebreaker muttered, before slapping Antibug with as much force as she could muster, absorbing her time energy in the process. She quickly killed the others too, then skated as fast as she could, as far as she could. Usually killing people made her feel better... this time, though, she didn't feel any different at all.

She used all her time energy to arrive much earlier in the day than she needed to. Already she had skated far enough to reach the Central Sector, and there didn't seem to be anyone else about. Good. Pulling off her helmet, she sat on the ground and let herself cry.


	13. Chapter 13

Dark Cupid added another very pointy twig to his arrow collection. There! He had _plenty_ of real arrows now. As much as he hated to admit it, back in the bloodbath Timebreaker had been right - his normal arrows wouldn't be particularly helpful when it came to killing people. Sure, it was fun to break up alliances from afar, watching the chaos as one team member turned against another, but ultimately most of these villains were already on the edge of attacking each other. It just wasn't good enough. The North Western Sector at least had a forest full of trees with pointy twigs, so Dark Cupid had been sneaking in and taking some. He even had a go at firing these new arrows. They were somewhat harder to aim, and surely they shouldn't fly very well considering how uneven they all were, but somehow it seemed to work. Maybe it was part of his superpowers to just magically be able to fire any missile from his bow.

Of course he wasn't ever going to tell Timebreaker her advice had been useful, in fact, he had pretended not to hear her at the time. It had to be _her_ , of all people, didn't it? The only person who ever bothered to stand up to his challenges and dares. How _annoying_. Well, at any rate, his powers wouldn't be considered "useless" anymore. He would actually be able to properly take part in these Games, finally. And not only that, he would be able to win! That would be _great_. This whole thing, though a little scary, could ultimately just be seen as one big challenge Hawk Moth was setting everyone. And if there was one thing Dark Cupid was good at, it was winning challenges.

 

A little later in the morning the sun rose into the sky, now mostly obscured by clouds, though still bright. Timebreaker shivered - she hadn't realized in the previous timeline how much colder it was this morning than it had been the other days. Or maybe she wasn't shivering from the cold, maybe it was something else. Fear? Emotional exhaustion? Or perhaps her helmet usually stopped her from feeling cold, and now that she had actually taken it off for once, she could feel the real temperature.

It was getting late. She knew she should go find the team, go tell them that Princess Fragrance needs to be saved, that Pharaoh needs to be de-akumatized... but she just couldn't move. She had managed to stop crying at least, though it had taken quite a while. It still felt impossible to believe... her own _brother_ had tried to kill her...

No, she needed to get up, she needed to do something. Anything to stop the thoughts from spinning around in her brain over and over again. She finally lifted her head from her hands and put her helmet back on. It felt stifling, but she couldn't let anyone see that she had been crying.  No one in this new timeline knew about that yet, and she planned to keep it that way. She slowly stood up. All her limbs felt heavier than usual. Trying to ignore that, she started skating away, hoping all these feelings would pass and she would soon return to her normal, ruthless self. It would be less painful.

 

She arrived at the team's location in the Southern Sector while they were still having breakfast.

"Oh, it's you," Antibug said. "Who dies?"

"Princess Fragrance," Timebreaker said. Her voice sounded a little off - her nose was still somewhat blocked. "She's heading for the top of the Power Tower and someone kills her there, I don't know who. I'm going to go stop that happening. I'll get her to join our team if you want."

"I'll come with you," Reflekta said quickly. "What? I want to make sure you don't hurt her! I told you, I'd only join this team if you agree to be nice to her."

"Fine, whatever. The rest of you, meet us up at the top of the Power Tower later. Also, Pharaoh's nearby - get Evillustrator to find out where he is. And..." Timebreaker skated right up to her younger self and spoke directly to her. "He needs to be de-akumatized. Immediately. Don't bother trying to talk to him, okay? He won't listen. I promise."

"Come on, this is _Jalil_ we're talking about," the younger Timebreaker said, sounding rather unimpressed. "He's a nerd."

"That's what I thought too. It did _not_ end well. Just... don't even try to talk to him. It'll hurt. Listen... be strong, okay?"

"Um, are we even the same person here? You're acting so..."

"Trust me, okay? Next time Antibug merges us and we get both sets of memories, you'll understand. The previous timeline was, uh, definitely not fun. Anyway, I don't think I should waste any more time here." She turned to Reflekta. "You coming or what?"

Reflekta quickly shovelled down the rest of her breakfast. "Alright, let's go!"

 

They reached the Power Tower fairly quickly. Timebreaker had been rollerskating fast, and Reflekta had a rather powerful leap that could allow her to travel quicker than many other villains. Entering the building, they saw that Lady Wifi must have removed the lock button from the lift, since it was open this time. The two villains went in and pressed the button for the top floor.

"So, how did Princess Fragrance die last time?" Reflekta asked as the lift ascended. Her tone was casual, but she wouldn't stop fiddling with the little jewel on the back of her hand.

"We think someone blew her up," Timebreaker replied. "She was shooting her perfume out of the top of the Power Tower, but then it all exploded and there was a cannon sound so someone must have died."

"I think it was probably the Mime who did it. I don't remember much from being possessed by Jackady, but I do know that the reason my hairdo is so messed up on one side is because of that darn Mime. He blasted it off with some kind of invisible gun thing. At least I got my revenge by stabbing his arm with my stick." She was talking rather fast.

"You're really looking forward to seeing Princess Fragrance, aren't you?"

"What on earth makes you say that?"

"You seem excited."

Reflekta grinned, looking down. "I'd say she's the only one in this arena I could really call a friend. We had a rather nice phone chat just before these Games started. I mean, don't get me wrong, I really don't care about Rose, but when she's Princess Fragrance I just... She's almost as good as I am."

"Are you really, definitely sure she'll be willing to join our team? Or that she thinks of you as her friend?"

"Of course I am!"

"Because..." Timebreaker willed herself not to start crying again. "If she's not what you expect her to be, if she doesn't want to team up with you or be your friend or whatever... it will hurt. Definitely."

"Let me guess. Something bad happened between you and your brother in the last timeline, didn't it?"

"He tried to kill me."

"Oh my... That's not very good. If it's any consolation, I think you're better looking than your brother, even if you do look like a bug alien with that helmet on. I could say for certain how good you look if you just took it off, but..."

"No way," Timebreaker said. She wasn't letting Reflekta see how red her eyes were. "Anyway it's no big deal - I just look like Alix, that's all. What do you think of her?"

"She's _weird_ , that's what. Such a strange aesthetic. And no offence, but I'm the only one who can truly pull off pink hair."

"Actually, your hair looks stupid," Timebreaker said.

"Excuse me? I-"

The lift door opened at that exact moment at the top floor. Princess Fragrance was already standing in the centre of the roof, perfume gun raised above her head, ready to turn the entire arena into her own kingdom. There, not too far behind her, near the edge of the roof, was the Mime. He looked like he was holding something invisible on his shoulder - maybe some kind of actual cannon?

In any case he didn't get a chance to fire it this time - Reflekta held up her hand and zapped him in under a second. Princess Fragrance heard the noise and turned around, seeing Reflekta and Timebreaker exiting the lift.

"Oh my goodness - Reflekta? Is that really you?" Her face lit up and she hopped up on one foot, the other sticking out in the air behind her. "I was so hoping you would find me! Let's win these Games together!"

"I actually have a somewhat better plan," Reflekta said. She walked over to the Mime and grabbed his arm. "Listen, Mime, as soon as the rest of my team gets here, we're going to de-akumatize you. So you'd better not run away before then, alright?"

"Oh, you're saving him?" Princess Fragrance gushed, sidling up to Reflekta. "How noble! I was so right to trust you. You're not like the other villains, you know."

"I know I'm not, and neither are you." Reflekta linked her arm up with Princess Fragrance's. "I would never do anything to hurt you, you know that."

"Of course! And it's the same here. These other villains, they need brainwashing to be kept under control. But at least _you_ don't - you're already on my side, aren't you?"

"Oh Princess, you know I am..."

Timebreaker cleared her throat. "Uh, have you two finished yet? Am I allowed to talk now?"

"Oh!" Princess Fragrance turned, seeing her there. "I didn't even realize you were here. Well, I should warn you, if you come any closer I'll spray you with my perfume."

"I am capable of holding my breath, you know. I could shove you off the edge of this roof and never have to inhale a single particle of your perfume."

"You take that back right now!" Reflekta said, pointing her stick at Timebreaker suddenly. "You promised you wouldn't threaten to hurt Princess Fragrance!"

"Hey, _I'm_ technically not the one who promised anything, that was Antibug. And anyway, I was joking, I'm not gonna do anything. I just wanted to explain the whole plan thing before the others get here."

Princess Fragrance frowned. "What others? What plan?"

"A bunch of us villains teamed up together to save everyone by de-akumatizing them all so no one dies. Because, you know, Hawk Moth's a jerk and stuff. If anyone does die I've just been going back in time and saving them. Right now me and Reflekta just saved you from Mime here."

"Oh, that's so nice of you!" Princess Fragrance clung onto Reflekta's arm. "And that's such a good plan, too! I certainly don't approve of killing when it's not necessary - it isn't princess-like. In any case, would you mind if I joined your team?"

Reflekta smiled down at her. "In fact, that's just what I was going to ask you!"

"How lovely! Oh Reflekta, you really are the best one here..."

"I know... and you're the second best..."

Timebreaker rolled her eyes. Being civil was one thing, being sappy was another entirely. As a villain, she just found it boring - though to be fair she'd always felt like that as Alix too. Well, she'd just have to wait for the others to arrive, and try not to throw up before then.

 

Lady Wifi turned away from her phone screen and looked at Kung Food, who was busy eating what looked like leaves. "Do you think you're healed yet?"

"It will take time. It is a good thing I have these all these herbs I can use."

"Yes." Lady Wifi walked over to the window and looked outside. "I think it might soon be time for us to enact our plan."

"You really trust those villains?"

She smiled. "Yes, I do. Before, I had still been wary. They're all awful, terrible people of course - you saw what they've done to Evillustrator. And I know perfectly well that Pharaoh isn't going to recognize Timebreaker as his sister, it won't stop him from attacking her. I thought perhaps Timebreaker might change her mind then, and decide to hurt him back. In that case I wouldn't have trusted her at all, she would have no morals whatsoever. But you know what? I was proved wrong!"

She switched the screen on her phone, now looking at the view of the top of the Power Tower, where one set of villains was waiting for the other.

"She does care," Lady Wifi continued. "Earlier this morning I watched her arrive from the future, completely devastated about something, crying her eyes out... I had no idea she even felt emotions before that, to be honest. And from what she said to her younger self, it seems like she's hurt that her brother tried to kill her in another timeline and doesn't want her younger self to suffer the same betrayal. You know what that means? It means she isn't just some cruel, heartless monster. It means that Alix is still in there somewhere. So I'm going to trust her."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Kung Food asked. "You remember what happened the previous time you decided to trust someone."

"That time I trusted blindly. Animan is _not_ really my father, okay? Much like the Pharaoh isn't really Timebreaker's brother while he's a villain. This time it's different. I have proof now. I know exactly what Timebreaker is going through - I felt the same betrayal myself. And I trusted _you_ , didn't I?"

"I am still confused about that. You said it is because we both use cameras to make a spy network. But really, it seems a silly reason... Tell me, why did you really trust me?"

Lady Wifi didn't want to tell the truth. It hurt so much to say it - but why bother hiding it now? If Timebreaker had suffered a breakdown and could still strike fear into people's hearts despite it, then surely it didn't matter if Lady Wifi herself had a little moment of weakness. And Kung Food here at least would understand her.

"The truth is," she mumbled, "you're the only one here who misses Marinette as much as I do."


	14. Chapter 14

"Look how many of us there are compared to you. Surrender now, or suffer the consequences." Antibug used the string of her yoyo to dangle the Mime off the edge of the Power Tower roof. After the rest of the team had arrived, Reflekta had detransformed him into his normal self and Antibug immediately had trapped him so he couldn't move. The villain team, now with Princess Fragrance as a part of it, stood around the roof edge in a half circle. The older Timebreaker noticed that her younger self did not look very happy, but she didn't want to ask about what happened with Pharaoh. She'd get the memories back in the next timeline merge anyway. At least he had been de-akumatized now, and he was safe. That was all that mattered, and she should try to move on now.

"Are you going to respond or not?" Antibug yelled, shaking the string.

"He can't speak!" Princess Fragrance said. "Give him a chance to express what he wants to say without words! Does anyone here know sign language? Maybe we could communicate by ... hey, what's he doing?"

Mime had managed to get one arm free. He reached up inside his hat and took out a little bit of paper, then ripped it in half with his teeth. A little black akuma fluttered out. Mime glared back at the villain team, as if to tell them to just hurry up and get on with it.

"Thank you for your obedience in this matter," Antibug said, loosening the string and catching the akuma with her yoyo. "Much better to go down without suffering, isn't it? I told you we'd be lenient if you do what we say. Anyway, you'll be leaving us in a few seconds, and I need this back, so..."

She quickly retracted the entire yoyo string, causing Mime to begin hurtling towards the ground.

"Oh my, is he going to die?" Princess Fragrance ran to the edge and peered over. "No, he's gone already... thank goodness... You could have _killed_ him, Antibug..."

"I know what I'm doing." Antibug smiled, releasing the purified akuma. "Anyway, I already decided what we're doing next. On the way up here Rogercop detected some strange signs of activity coming from the 25th floor. Let's go check it out, careers."

"Careers? You mean like in the actual Hunger Games? The tributes who have trained for the Games and are most likely to win?"

"Yeah, that's us! We're all really powerful villains, right? I'm like Ladybug, Copycat's like Chat Noir, Timebreaker can time travel, Rogercop can shoot lasers, you can brainwash people, Evillustrator can do whatever the heck he wants to, Reflekta can... well... she looks pretty. So yeah, we're the careers now." She smirked, spinning her yoyo on the tip of her finger like a basketball, then started walking back towards the lift with the rest of the team following her.

"She called me pretty..." Reflekta whispered, so quietly that only Princess Fragrance could hear. "Maybe she's ... you know... not so bad after all..."

"We're not all going to fit in the lift now," Antibug said from the front of the pack. "We should just go by stairs instead. Shouldn't be too bad, it's _climbing_ stairs that's tiring, not going down them. Come on everyone."

The team had gone down a few flights when Evillustrator suddenly clung onto the railing, his skin looking almost green.

"I don't... I don't feel so good."

"So?" Antibug shrugged. "Suck it up, let's keep moving."

Princess Fragrance put her hand on Evillustrator's forehead. "Oh you poor thing, you have a fever! And look at you, you look like you're going to be sick! You'd really better have some rest!"

"What are you, his mother?" Antibug snapped. "He'll be fine. Let's keep moving."

"I'm okay," Evillustrator mumbled weakly. He could see the fiery expression on Antibug's face, and he did _not_ want to be on the receiving end of her wrath.

"I think you should sit down," Princess Fragrance told him. "Do you have any medicine? Can you draw some?"

"No, everything I draw is made out of the same material..."

"In that case you should get some rest. A good night's sleep should cure you." She looked up. "Anyone else feeling ill? It's not a virus, is it? Spreading? Because if so then staying so close together might not actually be a good idea..."

"I don't think it's that," the older Timebreaker said. "The other day he spent like seven hours being pelted by Climatika's hailstones and ice winds and stuff, right? I bet it's catching up to him now. And, uh, he's not been doing so well emotionally either." Something she was finally starting to relate to herself. She almost felt a little bad for being so mean to the poor guy last night.

"Maybe that explains it," Princess Fragrance said. "In any case, he should stay out of further fights unless it's absolutely necessary. In fact, why don't we just de-akumatize him right now?"

"No," Antibug said, "we need his powers. They're _limitless_. He'll get better, I'm sure. And if he doesn't by tomorrow then we can just de-akumatize him then. Okay?"

"Okay. That sounds fair. What do you say, Evillustrator?"

He nodded. "Mhm."

"Yo Evillustrator..." Copycat sat on the railing. "Could you draw me a pair of sunglasses? It's really important."

The pen felt rather heavy in his hand, but Evillustrator drew what he was requested to. A small purple pair of sunglasses was delivered into Copycat's hands.

"Perfect, thanks. Okay now, everyone look at me. I'm gonna do something. Hang on." He lay his whole body across the railing, trying to look as laid back as possible. "Evillustrator, you know what you look like right now? It looks like you..." He put on the sunglasses. "...put the _ill_ in Evillustrator. YEEEEEEAAAAAHHHH."

Antibug stepped forwards and slapped him hard across the face, knocking off his sunglasses. "Don't you fricking dare."

"Oh come on, I was just trying to be like Chat Noir, and plus, that was a good one-"

"Shut up or I'll give you a kick somewhere it'll really hurt. I've had enough jokes, I've had enough puns, let's just get down to business."

" _To defeat the Huns_ ," Copycat whispered, unable to stop himself. Antibug shoved him off the railing, sending him tumbling and landing painfully on the floor below.

"Okay I deserved that one!" he called back up to them.

Antibug turned to the others. "Anyone else got any jokes they would like to share? Because right now I am feeling a little... how do I put it... twitchy? Cruel? Anyway, just know that I won't hesitate to hurt anyone right now. Reining in these killer instincts of mine is no easy task, you know. If you plan to take advantage of my generosity then you will seriously regret it."

 

 

Back in the civilian room in Hawk Moth's lair, Lila was explaining everything to Fred Haprèle, who had only just turned up and wasn't entirely sure what was going on.

"...and your daughter is fine, don't worry, you can see her on this screen - look..."

"Do you think she'll be rescued soon?" Fred asked quickly.

"Absolutely, Mr Haprèle. Things are going very well actually."

"Oh, thank goodness..."

"In fact," Max said, suddenly standing up from the armchair he had been sitting in, "I've got even more uplifting news, Lila!" He beckoned her over to the side of the room. "You see, this little bookshelf that Hawk Moth has left in here for us also contains manuals with further details of these Games we didn't know about before. For example, apparently he's built the arena in "hyperspace", though I don't know exactly what that is, and-"

"What's the uplifting thing?"

"Oh, that! Apparently all the animals you see in the arena are actually just virtual hyperspatial constructs."

"Which means...?"

"They function exactly as real animals, but ultimately they are not actually alive. Which means that all the animals that have died so far in the Games - especially pigeons, of course - none of them are actually dead because they were never really alive in the first place. They were simply created for these Games, and that's it."

Lila smiled. "Oh, that is good news. One thing I felt so bad about was all the pigeon death. I'm such a supporter of animal rights, by the way, when I was travelling with my family we adopted a bunch of wild tigers and I single-handedly saved them from the-"

"Also," Max continued, knowing perfectly well that Lila was making that last bit up, "an interesting thing you might have been wondering about. When akumatized, the villains' metabolisms work differently. They still need food and water to function, but the energy is stored and used differently, and there's no waste. Any normally toxic or waste materials are instead used to go towards a villain's powers. After all, have you noticed that none of the villains ever need to use the toilet? I mean, not that they'd be able to with those skin-tight suits on, haha, and apparently periods don't happen when akumatized either..."

"Yeah, I noticed," Lila muttered, annoyed to be reminded of the stomach cramps she had been trying to distract herself from ever since she'd got here. "Anyway... maybe don't bring that up when Manon's around unless you're okay with answering some awkward questions..."

"Don't bring up what?" Manon asked, running up to them. "I'm a big kid, I can handle secrets!"

"We were just talking about death and stuff," Lila said quickly. "Grown up stuff like death and murder."

"And blood," Max added, trying not to laugh.

"Oh yes, blood, especially blood. And... pain. Blood and pain."

Manon stuck her tongue out. "That's gross. I'm gonna go play magical space unicorns with Aurore. See you!" She ran off again.

"Blood and pain, that's accurate," Lila chucked. "But, uh, in all seriousness now..." She lowered her voice a little. "I know none of us are exactly "doing well" right now, but that nerd guy. Alix's brother. He _really_ doesn't seem to be doing well."

Max quickly glanced at the corner of the room, where Jalil stood alone in the dark, silently watching the TV screens. "Of course he isn't doing well. Most of us have at least some memories of what we did as villains, even Aurore, but Jalil remembers _nothing_. And the first thing he saw on the screens when he got here was his sister saying he had tried to kill her. That probably wouldn't feel too good. And unlike us classmates for example, he doesn't really know anyone here."

Lila frowned. "I still don't get why some of us remember more than others."

"I'm not sure if this is right, but something I've thought about is that maybe it has to do with how lucid you are as a villain. As in, how similar you are to your normal self and aware of yourself and your choices. Take Evillustrator, for example. He said last night that he feels exactly like he usually does when he's Nathaniel, his civilian self, so I assume that when he gets back he's probably going to remember much more than the rest of us do. Climatika, on the other hand, is an incredibly villainous person and very different from Aurore, which is probably why Aurore doesn't remember much at all. I suppose it just goes even further for Jalil - when he's akumatized he becomes Pharaoh, who is an entirely different person, an actual historical figure. There's nothing even about him that connects Akhenaten to Jalil, therefore he doesn't remember any of it at all. And, I suppose, why he was alright with... you know, trying to kill his sister and everything."

"Poor guy... Should we do something? Or do you think he wants to be left alone right now?"

Max shrugged. "I have no idea. I just... I just really hope these Games end quickly."

"Yeah. Me too."

 

 

Bubbler stood in the doorway of the building. It looked old and rusty, like it was falling to pieces. All buildings in the North Eastern Sector looked like that, really. In any case, he was _sure_ he had seen Lady Wifi's silhouette in the window. He just had to see if it was really her.

"Hello?" he called. The building was dark inside and he couldn't see much. "Is anyone there? It's me, the Bubbler! That DJ guy who can make giant magic bubbles! I'm not gonna hurt you, I just wanna talk!"

A distant door opened, spreading light into the room. There in the doorway he saw it again - the unmistakeable figure of Lady Wifi. _Alya_.

"What do you want to talk about?" she asked. Her voice sounded colder than he had remembered. He couldn't see her expression since all the light was coming from behind her, but it probably wasn't friendly.

"Uh... wanna team up or something? I mean, you're my bae, right?"

"I might consider the offer of teaming up, but I am not your bae. I'm Lady Wifi, and you're Bubbler. Not Alya and Nino. The sooner you get used to that, the easier everything will be."

"Yeah, true, sorry." Bubbler warily stepped closer. "Anyway listen, I've had a real rough couple of days dude, I spent the first night trapped in a bubble and running out of air, and just now I almost got killed by a magic dragon so uh... I kinda just... want a friend I guess? And you're the only one here I would trust with something like that."

Lady Wifi was silent for a few seconds. Then she said, "How can you prove your loyalty to me? How do I know you're not just trying to get me to lower my guard so you can kill me?"

"I don't know, man, I swear I'm not lying. I don't really care about killing people or winning the Games or whatever, I just wanna go home. There are people who I wish I could see again, or I wish they were here with me. Like... l-like Adrien..." He could feel tears dripping from his eyes. Fair enough, that was probably a good thing. That way Lady Wifi would see how sincere he was. "I first got akumatized for Adrien, he's my best bro, and I wish he was here. And Marinette, she's my bro too. In a sis way, yeah. I just really miss them so much... I keep thinking maybe I'll die here and I'll never get to see them again... But at least you're here, and I... I really care about you, okay? I know you're Lady Wifi and not Alya, but still... I wanted to see y-you one l-last time..."

Without warning, Lady Wifi suddenly lunged forward and wrapped him in a tight hug.

"Oh _Nino_ , I've missed you too... I mean, Bubbler... And I miss Marinette and Adrien so much too, more than you could imagine." She hugged him even tighter, pressing her arms into his shoulders. He caught the scent of something from her hair - something that reminded him of home. "Look... I knew you were coming here. My cameras are everywhere, I see everything. And I _do_ want to team up with you. I've made a plan and everything. But... oh, Nino. I'm so sorry."

"For what?"

She was hugging him so tightly he could barely breathe. "You'll be fine, I promise. We'll be okay. Everything I'm doing is for your own good. Please don't think I'm hurting you on purpose, okay? It's all part of a plan. I love you, so much, it's just... I have to make myself seem strong. I have to make myself _be_ strong. Please trust me. I... I'm sorry Nino. For what I'm going to do to you."

She suddenly let go of him. Then she leaned aside and kicked him so hard in the head that he was knocked out.


	15. Chapter 15

The villain team slowly made their way down to the 25th floor. Antibug kept trying to hurry them along, but Evillustrator was feeling so weak that he couldn't go any faster, and Princess Fragrance refused to leave him behind.

"Ugh, _finally_ ," Antibug muttered when they got there. "Alright Rogercop, show us whatever the thing was that you sensed."

Rogercop led everyone through several empty corridors and into a large, sparsely furnished side room. On the wall hung several empty portraits, with black borders and filled with white space. Or rather, _most_ of them were empty - two of them were not.

"I think I know what this is!" Copycat said, running into the room and shoving everyone out of the way. "This is Pixelator's photo stash! If he zaps anyone with his magic camera then they get transported into some other dimension and end up only visible through these pictures - happened to me once when I was a civilian, haha. And some of you guys too I think? Anyway, let's see who he's caught so far..." He stepped right up to the wall and looked into the portraits. "Hey, this one's got Guitar Villain! And this other one here has Stone Heart! And... a cat? No wait, is that a pokémon? Looks kinda like a ... a weird purple bulbasaur... I think... Ooh they're trying to speak to me! Everyone be quiet!"

The others came and crowded round. Sure enough, Guitar Villain was waving his arms frantically at them.

"Hey! Can you hear me?"

"Yeah, we can hear you!" Copycat grinned and gave a double thumbs up.

"Well if you want to kill me, don't even bother trying! There's no way to break me out of here. I already tried blasting my way out with my awesome rock shockwaves."

"No no no we're not going to kill you! Actually I'm a massive fan! I think this is the second time we've spoken?" He cleared his throat. "My name is Copycat, I'm the villain who stole the Mona Lisa. You might also know me as "Theo Barbeau", my civilian identity, you might have seen me around a few times - you once tried to fight me at the top of the Eiffel Tower because you wanted to know where XY was, and it was awesome-"

"Okay whatever. Listen, I'll give you an autograph or a personal concert or something, as long as you can get me out of here and find Fang!"

"Uh... Fang?"

"My crocodile! I mean, my dragon! I don't know where he is but I suspect that Animan guy had something to do with it. If you can promise to get him back for me and let me out of here then I'll do anything you want."

Antibug pushed Copycat aside. "Alright, that sounds like a good deal. If we get you out of here, you will allow us to peacefully de-akumatize you. That way you will return to your civilian self, Jagged Stone, alive and well. And you'll get Fang back too that way, and you won't be stuck in these stupid Games any longer."

Guitar Villain played a triumphant note on his guitar and struck a pose. "Yeah, that sounds wicked! Back to my rock star career as soon as possible, with no added chance of dying? Rock and roll! And just think about how my experiences in here could help me with coming up with ideas for songs! But how are you going to get me out of here?"

"If we can de-akumatize Pixelator, you should be released from these pictures. Do you have any idea where he is?"

"Yeah, he's in the North Western Sector. He only got me like 20 minutes ago so he's got to still be there. But... are you really de-akumatizing him? Aren't you killing anyone?"

Antibug beamed. "Nope. We're too awesome for that. We're gonna be heroes and save everyone."

"Yeah, that does sound pretty awesome!"

"And now for you." Antibug turned to the other picture. "Stone Heart, and... Horrificator? Really? Why are you so small?"

"She's scared," Stone Heart said, his voice gruff and hard to understand. "She doesn't like the arena and she keeps shrinking. I'm protecting her."

"Huh, that's actually... sweet. Well anyway, I'm assuming you heard what we just said to Guitar Villain, and I have the same deal for you. If we let you out, you have to let us de-akumatize you. Both of you."

Stone Heart nodded. "Yes please. Mylène doesn't deserve this. I just want her to be safe." He held her close in his big, rocky arms. "She just keeps getting smaller while I keep getting bigger... All I want is for us to get out of the arena safely."

"Well, we will totally make sure that happens, don't worry." Antibug whirled around to face the rest of her team. "Right careers, we know what we've got to do next. Head to the North Western Sector and take down Pixelator. And Evillustrator, I _suppose_ you could sit out the battle if you really don't feel that good, but... just try to get better quickly. I mean, for a guy with "Evil" in your name, you're really not very evil."

"Someone should stay here and keep an eye on these guys in the meantime," Copycat said, looking back at the portraits. "Not that I don't trust them, but..."

"Yes, alright. Hmm... younger Timebreaker, you do it. You're quick so you can easily find us again later. Everyone else, get ready. Pixelator can zap from a long distance, much like you, Reflekta. We've probably got quite a battle coming up."

 

It was already afternoon by the time the villain team reached the forest in the North Western Sector.

"I can sense Pixelator," Rogercop said. "He is this way. Follow me." He began walking through the trees without waiting to check that everyone was following him. After a while he stopped suddenly. "He is very close now. If Evillustrator would like to rest then he should go no further. Rest here."

Evillustrator immediately slumped down against the nearest tree and closed his eyes. Princess Fragrance walked over and put her hand on his forehead again.

"It's getting worse!"

"You stay here too," Antibug said.

"What? But I want to help you!"

"You can help by staying here. If you use your perfume in battle, _we'll_ breathe it in too, you know."

"Oh alright, I suppose... What am I supposed to do then? Evillustrator's already asleep I think, and I don't have any medicine to give him, I'll be _bored_. Can Reflekta stay back too?"

"No way! We need Reflekta's zapping powers! How else are we supposed to hit Pixelator from a distance? We'll be back soon, okay, and you can hang out with Reflekta then. Rogercop, lead the way."

Rogercop walked off into the trees again and the remaining villains followed him. As soon as they were gone, Princess Fragrance quietly leaned over and took the pen from behind Evillustrator's ear. Then, again trying to be as quiet as possible, she drew a little flower on his tablet. Sure enough, an actual flower popped into existence a little later. She tried drawing a pretty little dress next, and that worked too (though it didn't look very comfortable). _This is fun_ , she thought to herself. _Maybe it was a good idea for me to stay behind after all!_ She carried on quietly drawing things, quickly erasing them out of existence if she heard a noise or if Evillustrator stirred.

All of a sudden, Reflekta ran back into the area. Her right arm was fuzzy and unclear.

"What happened to you?" Princess Fragrance asked, leaping up and running over to her. When she tried to touch Reflekta's arm, she found that her hand went straight through it.

"He shot me," Reflekta replied. "Not directly, of course, but I can't zap him with no arm! I even lost my stick! In any case I'd be rather useless in a battle now, so I left it to the others." She stepped a little closer. "In fact, don't tell the others, but I'm _glad_. I'm really getting sick of fighting all the time, you know? It would be so much nicer to just spend some time with you here instead."

"Oh Reflekta, that's so sweet! And look at this!" Princess Fragrance ran back over and drew a little rose on Evillustrator's tablet. Taking the rose that materialized in front of her, she handed it to Reflekta. "I've been having lots of fun with his drawing powers. Do you want to have a go too?"

"Well, I could try using my left hand I suppose..."

The two of them quietly began drawing each other little presents, making sure not to make too much noise. It didn't really matter, though, since Evillustrator was already in such a deep sleep that he wouldn't have woken up no matter how much noise they were making.

 

Meanwhile, in a heated battle with Pixelator, Antibug was cursing Reflekta for leaving them like that.

"What a _coward!_ Couldn't she have just used her stick?" She leapt out of the way of another one of Pixelator's shots, temporarily hiding behind a tree. "I bet she just wanted to go back to Princess Fragrance, that's all! How lazy!" She peeked around and threw her yoyo at Pixelator, but he dodged it. Retracting her yoyo again, she scowled. "This is the worst battle ever."

"Yeah, it is," Timebreaker said, limping over to take cover behind the tree with her. "He shot my foot, I can't skate like this..."

"CHAAAAAAAAAARGE!" Copycat screeched, bounding off a tree branch and heading straight for Pixelator's glasses. Pixelator zapped him directly before he even got close.

"Ugh, that idiot keeps ruining everything," Antibug said. "And why is Rogercop not doing anything?"

"He's malfunctioning again," Timebreaker replied. "We might have to de-akumatize him. If we survive this battle, that is."

"You're not going to leave too, are you?"

"No, of course not."

"Good. Honestly Timebreaker, sometimes I think you're the only one in this arena apart from me that isn't a _complete_ idiot."

"Um... thanks?"

The sound of zapping was coming closer. Pixelator ran around to the other side of the line of trees, now having a much clearer aim at them.

"Anti-Charm!" Antibug called, throwing her yoyo up in the air. A long flat stick fell into her hands. "Wait a second, is this... a snap bracelet? What on earth am I supposed to do with this?" She had a quick look around, but couldn't for the life of her figure out how to use it to her advantage. Was this what Ladybug felt like all the time?

"Looks like it's over for you," Pixelator snarled, finger on trigger and ready to fire.

"Wait! Want to team up?"

"No, why would I do that when I can win by myself?" He pressed the button and shot several streams of pixels at the two. Antibug quickly snapped the bracelet around her wrist, then grabbed Timebreaker's arm and swung them out of Pixelator's line of fire. They landed up in the tree branches, somewhat obscured by leaves but still vulnerable. Pixelator stood closer to the tree and started zapping upwards, barely missing them.

"We're toast, and it's all Reflekta and Copycat's fault," Antibug said, folding her arms. "And Evillustrator's fault for getting ill. And Rogercop's fault for malfunctioning."

"And, let me guess, my fault for getting zapped in the foot?"

"But at least you didn't just abandon me, did you? Anyway, there's still the other you back at the Power Tower. She's got both her skates." Antibug peered out through the leaves, then quickly leaned back again as another shot whistled past. "What are we going to do now?"

There was suddenly a distant roar. Pixelator turned around. "What was that?"

Copycat rematerialized right behind him and whacked him with his staff, knocking Pixelator to the ground. "Turns out Cataclysm can break the dimension thing! I think Chat Noir did that last time too! Anyway, Stone Heart, Horrificator and Guitar Villain are all free now and will be here in a minute - I believe that was Stone Heart yelling that you just heard. So, I'll take that..."

He reached down to take the glasses. Pixelator kicked his hand out of the way and stood up, immediately trying to zap him. Copycat ran around behind him and tried to hit him again.

Antibug took the snap bracelet off her wrist and looked at it. "I think I know what to do with this now... You stay here, Timebreaker."

She grabbed her yoyo and then swung down onto the ground. Pixelator and Copycat were still in a close-range battle with each other, with Copycat constantly trying to strike Pixelator down with his baton, and Pixelator trying to fight him off and zap him. Copycat brought the baton straight down above Pixelator's head, and he grabbed it with both his hands to stop it. Seizing the moment, Antibug ran forwards and whacked the snap bracelet onto Pixelator's wrists, making him unable to get them unattached from the baton.

"Let go Copycat, I need this!" Antibug grabbed the baton from Copycat's hands and threw it against the nearest tree, sending Pixelator tumbling head over heels and landing on the ground upside down. Antibug ran over to him and kicked the camera. The glass cracked and out flew the little akuma, which she quickly purified. Then she took the snap bracelet off and handed Copycat's baton back.

"Miraculous Antibug!" She threw the snap bracelet in the sky. Pixelator turned into his civilian self and disappeared from the arena, and the merged Timebreaker jumped out of the tree, both skates fully solid and tangible again. A few seconds later was the arrival of Stone Heart (carrying Horrificator) and Guitar Villain.

"Our turn," Stone Heart said. He held out his hand, in which he was carrying a lump of rock the shape of a scrunched up bit of paper, and a little pin. Antibug smashed both objects and purified the akumas that resided in them. Stone Heart and Horrificator turned back into Ivan and Mylène, then vanished a few seconds later.

"Before I de-akumatize you," Antibug said to Guitar Villain, "could we have a little concert please?"

Guitar Villain didn't need to be asked twice. He played a very loud, wild melody on his guitar, all while headbanging furiously and jumping around all over the place, striking pose after pose. At the end of his performance he took his guitar and smashed it repeatedly on the ground.

"YEAAAHH!!! THANK YOU PANEM!!!"

The akuma flew out of his mangled guitar and Antibug purified it, leaving Guitar Villain to turn back into Jagged Stone and be taken out of the arena. Presumably the same thing was happening to Fang, wherever he was.

"And now for Rogercop," Antibug muttered. They walked over to where Rogercop was standing, error messages flashing on his screen again. "Yeah, I don't know how to fix him. I suppose we'll just have to get rid of him, and hopefully there won't be anything wrong with Roger..." She crushed the police whistle in her hand and purified that akuma too. It was becoming like second nature to her, she'd done it so many times recently. Within a few seconds Rogercop was gone too.

"What next?" asked Copycat.

Antibug cracked her knuckles. "Next I am going to tell off Reflekta for being a lazy coward, that's what. As for after that, I don't know. But we'll figure something out. There aren't too many villains left now, right? Hopefully we won't be stuck in this arena for too much longer."


	16. Chapter 16

"... and what was I supposed to do? I couldn't zap him with no arm! I was simply keeping myself safe-"

"You're a _coward_ , Reflekta, you hear that? _I_ didn't run away at the first sign of danger!"

"But you didn't get zapped!"

"Well you should have tried harder!"

"I did, that's why he managed to zap me! Maybe if you'd spent less time hiding and more time attacking then you'd have had a limb zapped too and you'd know how it feels!"

"Well Timebreaker got her foot zapped and that didn't stop her, did it? You're just making excuses, honestly I don't know why I put up with a stuck-up airhead like you..."

Evillustrator somehow still slept through the loud argument that was going on. Copycat stood watching, every now and then trying to say something but always getting talked over. Princess Fragrance stood by Reflekta's side, clutching onto her arm and glaring at Antibug. She twirled her perfume gun in her hand dangerously, though she made no move to use it yet.

Timebreaker, however, was sitting in a nearby tree and paying no attention to what was going on. The memories of the newer timeline were still fresh in her mind. Even this second time her brother had tried to kill her, refusing to recognize her as his sister. It hurt so much. At least with the warning from her future self she had been prepared enough that she held back her tears this time, but all it did was make her feel more lonely now. She knew she should probably try not to think about it but she couldn't help it. For once she wished that she actually had a friend - someone to properly rely on in this arena, and _not_ just her own self from other timelines. It was unfair. Antibug had Vanisher, for however short a time. Reflekta had Princess Fragrance. Copycat didn't have anyone but at least he was technically a grown up so he should be better at dealing with this sort of thing, and he hadn't had his own family trying to _murder_ him either. Evillustrator... at least he was lonely too. Even back as a civilian, he was always lonely. He knew exactly what it felt like. But then again, he was ill now and probably wouldn't make it much longer. And besides, Timebreaker knew that he wouldn't want to talk to her. Not after she had shown a nasty, horrendously evil and cruel side to him last night, scaring him into silence. She really was regretting that now. There was no chance of making friends with him anymore.

"Alright, fine!" Reflekta yelled. "What's our next battle? I'll _prove_ to you I'm not a coward."

"No more battles today," Antibug said. "We have to let Evillustrator recover. And..." She looked up at the tree that Timebreaker was sitting in. "...today has been a rough day. Let's just rest, I mean, we don't have many villains left to go. Apart from us there's just Dark Cupid, Mr Pigeon, Animan, Bubbler, Lady Wifi and Kung Food, right? We're past halfway now, we've done most of the hard work already. But yes, I'd certainly like to see you trying harder from now on, Reflekta. Stop goofing off with Princess Fragrance all the time. Start pulling your weight."

"Oh, I'll be doing that, alright..." Reflekta muttered, grabbing Princess Fragrance's hand and stomping off.

 

Somewhere in another part of the arena, Dark Cupid sat sharpening the twigs he had collected. He had a mix of normal and makeshift arrows, ready for use. He couldn't wait to try them out tomorrow. At the opposite end of the arena, Mr Pigeon fed his little feathered friends while chuckling gleefully about his plans to win the Games. Animan, in panther form, watched the birds and felt his stomach rumble, but he didn't pounce. That would be a bad idea when he had worked so hard to gain Mr Pigeon's trust. Somewhere not too far away, Lady Wifi stared at her phone, looking at her video feed of various parts of the arena. Every now and then a tear would quietly roll down her cheek. She didn't want things to be like this - she just wanted to go home. But she _had_ to stay strong. She had to stop feeling so much. At least Kung Food was asleep and couldn't see her crying. And Bubbler... oh, _Bubbler_ , her own dear Nino... She didn't want to think about what he was going to be put through. But it was okay, he would be safe in the end. That was what this was all for, after all.

 

Night fell. Hawk Moth sat slumped over his seventh cup of coffee, very seriously contemplating just blowing up the entire arena with everyone in it. That would be great revenge, wouldn't it? In fact, maybe he could put all the civilians back in the arena first, then blow it up. Yes, that would be very cathartic. But then again... that was _cheating_. And there was still a chance that permanent deaths could happen naturally - these were akumatized villains, after all, literally created to do evil. His arena-controlling powers were only to be used as a last resort. But still, how infuriating! He decided that if the villain count was down to eight and there were still no deaths, he would use his powers against the villains and _force_ them into violence.

In another part of the lair, most of the civilians were getting sleepy. Manon had gone to sleep very late last night and woken up very early, and now it had finally caught up with her. She had fallen asleep on the sofa itself and Aurore had to pick her up and take her to her allocated bed. Max, meanwhile, was still reading through the manuals that Hawk Moth had left, and was discovering more information by the second.

"This isn't the only arena Hawk Moth created," he told Lila quietly, making sure not to wake most of the others who were already asleep by now. "He says here that he built others too, though he only finished construction on this arena and one other."

"What's the other arena like?" Lila asked.

"Much more like the original Hunger Games. It's kind of like a forest jungle sort of biome, and has a giant volcano in the centre. He doesn't give many other details."

"I'm glad he didn't use that arena. Imagine having to deal with a volcano!"

"I know! Actually he said he wanted to use that one, but he discovered that lava has an adverse effect on the force field surrounding the arena, weakening it. The volcano doesn't actually contain enough lava to breach the force field, but he thought it was better to be safe than sorry. He didn't want any villains escaping and ending up beyond his direct control. That's why he picked this arena instead."

"Yeah, well..." Lila looked at the screens, currently showing the desolately empty Central Sector. "This arena looks like a twisted version of Paris. It's probably even better at messing with everyone's head than an actual volcano."

"Yes, absolutely. He mentions that in the manual too. He also thought it might make the villains more violent - they're fighting in the same kind of environment that they fought in when trying to take Ladybug and Chat Noir's miraculouses."

"That didn't work out very well, did it?" Lila laughed. "Sure the villains are violent, but no one's even dead. In this timeline, at least. I bet no one's going to properly die through the whole thing."

"Don't jinx it..."

 

Antibug paced around in the dark, the first one on watch tonight. She didn't feel like she would be able to get to sleep anyway. Though she would never admit it to anyone, she was starting to feel homesick. She missed her big fancy hotel, her expensive clothes, her expensive food, her father, her butler, her sort of friend Adrien... At least this time things would be different. Now that she was going to save everyone and be considered a hero even as a villain, no one would think of her as a bullying brat anymore. Finally, Chloé Bourgeois would get the appreciation she deserved.

She was starting to miss Sabrina, too. At least with Vanisher here in the arena for a while it had felt like she'd had her best friend with her. Now it just seemed like all the other villains in her team were against her. She almost felt like they were plotting behind her back or something. But why? She had done nothing wrong! So what if she was being a bit snappy? She was a _villain_ , so was everyone else, they should be used to that. And why was everyone else so incompetent all the time? Evillustrator complaining about a bit of a runny nose, Reflekta running away at the first sign of danger, Princess Fragrance not even having any helpful powers anyway, Copycat being a terrible fighter in general... It seemed only Antibug was actually trying her hardest to save everyone.

Well, and Timebreaker too. Antibug had to admit that this tiny pink-haired punk was quite a force to be reckoned with, and a valuable team member. Almost... _too_ valuable. The one who had suggested de-akumatizing everyone in the first place. What if, after the Games were over, no one paid any attention to Antibug's contribution? What if they only remembered what Timebreaker did? All the time travelling and saving people from death in multiple timelines? No, Antibug couldn't let that happen! Probably no one else was going to die now, so she should just de-akumatize Timebreaker right this moment and get it over with. No point giving her any more chances to get more glory than she deserved. She was asleep, it would be easy.

Antibug stealthily climbed the nearby tree and crept onto the branch that Timebreaker was asleep on - was she honestly so small that she could fit on this tiny tree branch without even falling off? Someone so small certainly didn't look like a hero, so they shouldn't get a chance to be seen as one either. Antibug reached forward to take off the relevant skate and smash it. Her fingers were only an inch away when she stopped.

No, she couldn't do it. With Vanisher gone, and no one left in this arena to trust, at least Timebreaker was a good ally. And she wasn't a coward or a weakling or a load - she had done plenty of helpful things so far. In fact, most of the villains would probably be _dead_ by now if it weren't for her. How could Antibug possibly think of getting rid of her so soon, when the final battles were yet to come? That being said, she was no Vanisher. Antibug still didn't trust her completely. She was just a good ally, that was all. And... maybe a friend? No, no, definitely not. Antibug's only friend was Vanisher and that was it. After all, making friends was the first on a slippery slope leading to betrayal, sappiness, and other unvillain-like things. If Antibug wanted to stay the strongest then new friendships were not an option.

"What the heck are you doing up here?" Timebreaker mumbled, opening her eyes and seeing Antibug there. "It's not my turn to be on watch for like... 3 hours..."

"You're not my friend and I don't like you," Antibug said quickly.

"Yeah, okay, same. So can I go back to sleep now, or...?"

"No," Antibug snapped. "Um, I mean..." She cleared her throat. "I wanted to talk to you."

"Can't this wait till morning?"

"No, so just shut up and listen. I'm quite tired too, you know. Anyway, I wanted to reiterate that you're the only competent one here, other than me."

Timebreaker yawned. "I know that."

"And I certainly trust you more than the others, that's for sure. Though that doesn't mean we're friends, because we're not. But I also wanted to say..." Antibug took a deep breath and hoped she wouldn't regret this in the morning. "I think you must be pretty strong. Not physically I mean, because you're not. Look at you, you're a tiny, scrawny little kid on skates who just happens to have a magical death touch thing. But I mean, you're created to be one of the really terrible villains, like me, and you still overcame that and decided to save people."

"Don't get me wrong, I did it because I hate Hawk Moth and because I'd have a rotten life if I win by killing everyone. Not because I'm some kind, sappy villain who cares about everyone."

"I know. But you _do_ care about your brother, don't you?"

Timebreaker didn't say anything. Clearly Antibug's guess had been correct.

"I could tell," she continued. "When we were fighting him earlier you seemed so distracted and subdued. Then you didn't even speak for ages. And at first I thought it was funny, that a villain like you could be so affected that a family member tried to kill you. It seemed weak. But you know what? You just kept going anyway. Both timeline versions of you. You kept fighting, even staying with me in that battle against Pixelator despite being zapped in the foot and not having any long-range powers anyway. So for that sheer display of endurance in the face of emotional trauma, I am willing to overlook your weaker points."

Timebreaker sighed. "I get what you mean, but... I wouldn't say caring about someone is weak. I thought so too earlier but I think I'm changing my mind. And don't you dare call me "soft" or "sappy" or something, because I can still kick you out of this tree. For starters, I bet you care about Vanisher, don't you?"

"Yes, of course, she's my best friend!"

"Exactly, and that doesn't make you weak, it just means you have a friend. Someone to trust, someone who's got your back. And I guess the more people you care about, the more friends you could make."

"But not you, though, because we're definitely not friends."

Timebreaker tried not to laugh. "You... you've said that three times already..."

"Well - it's true!"

"Whatever. Now, can I go back to sleep?"

"Alright. I'll wake you up in three hours. And don't tell anyone else I was talking to you, okay? Especially don't tell them I said you're strong or that I trust you more than them."

"Yeah sure. Now _goodnight_ , Antibug."

Timebreaker turned around and curled up on the branch. Antibug quietly climbed back down to the ground. Part of her was already regretting having talked to Timebreaker about all this. After all, having meaningful conversations in the middle of the night was a _friendship_ thing! She couldn't let that happen again!

And yet... why not? Timebreaker was right - there was nothing inherently weak about having friends, was there? If Antibug was already friends with Vanisher, then why not someone else too? But... did it really have to be Timebreaker? The one person who was capable of taking away Antibug's rightful glory in these Games? On the one hand Antibug wanted to talk to her again, on the other hand she wanted to take her stupid skates and smash them into the ground, along with the rest of that tiny pink snake. She wrestled with the thought but just couldn't make up her mind. Should she make friends properly with Timebreaker? Should she de-akumatize her? Was there any other option? Ugh, her brain just felt so _muddled_ when she was akumatized like this!

Up in the tree, Timebreaker was too amused to fall back asleep straightaway. She had been thinking about maybe wanting a friend, true, but Antibug was the _last_ person she would have picked. Yet here was Antibug, waking her up in the middle of the night to have a chat with her! And the more stubbornly Antibug denied wanting to be friends, the more it seemed she was just trying to convince herself of that (and failing, too). Maybe being friends with Antibug would be a good thing. At least, as long as Antibug never betrayed her, like her brother did. It certainly wouldn't hurt as much, but still. It wouldn't be nice to make a friend only for them to stab you in the back later.


	17. Chapter 17

Early the next morning, Copycat sat at the foot of a tree, on watch. He was half tempted just to kill all the villains in his sleep - he was getting sick of them. Especially Antibug, who seemed to think he was useless. That just wasn't true though! He was a perfectly capable villain, and he shouldn't be underestimated so severely. Sure, he made mistakes sometimes, but so did everyone else. It wasn't something to ridicule.

The ears on his costume fluttered slightly. It seemed like there was some kind of sound coming from the distance, though he couldn't tell exactly what it was. He got to his feet and extended his baton. Looking around, he couldn't see anything, but the sound was getting louder. It seemed to be some kind of... thudding? But who in this arena even had footsteps like that? Stone Heart was already de-akumatized, so was Fang the dragon, so was Gamer...

"Guys, you should probably wake up," he said, prodding Antibug in the side with his baton and then moving onto waking the others.

"What is it?" yawned Antibug.

"Something's coming. Can you hear that?"

Antibug tilted her head to the side, listening intently. "It sounds like a herd of elephants." She quickly stood up and grabbed her yoyo. "Maybe that's Animan. He probably found some other animals in the arena to control."

Copycat had woken all the others by now. The thudding was much louder, and the ground was beginning to tremble a little. The villain team stood back-to-back in a circle - no one could tell exactly where the sound was coming from, other than _everywhere_.

The surrounding trees seemed to be toppling over in a domino effect, as if something behind them was knocking them over. The next second, what had to be dozens of different species of wild animal was surrounding the team: elephants, giraffes, lions, gorillas... Up in the sky a swarm of pigeons had suddenly appeared, now easily visible since all the trees had been knocked down by the approaching animals. And at the front of the animal army stood a lone panther, with Mr Pigeon beside him.

"Uh... truce?" Antibug asked, putting on her best smile. The panther - clearly Animan - snarled.

"I think not. Animals, attack them!"

At the same time as the animals all rushed towards the group, Mr Pigeon blew on his whistle and the pigeons all swooped down from above, beaks sharp and ready.

The ensuing battle was chaotic. It was impossible for any members of the group to know where the rest were, since the animals were everywhere. Evillustrator's drawing hand was knocked aside painfully less than a minute in, and he knew he stood no chance. He wasn't very pleased about killing any animals anyway. He just held the pen in his teeth and roughly drew a big opaque box over him - hopefully that would protect him. An elephant slammed into the side of the box suddenly, and the impact made Evillustrator drop his pen somewhere into the grass. He crouched down and tried to find it but the grass was tall enough to make it difficult. Not to mention, he still felt tired and ill, even worse than yesterday in fact. His eyes just didn't seem to be focusing right.

"Hey, get me out of here!" Reflekta yelled. Evillustrator turned around to see that he had accidentally trapped Reflekta in the box with him, and he hadn't even noticed.

"I can't without my pen," he muttered.

"Seriously? Well find it quickly then! I need to get out there and help Princess Fragrance! Her powers aren't suited for combat and I don't know if her perfume works on animals, or even whether she'd want to use it considering some of our teammates might breathe it in too..." Reflekta got down on her knees and began looking for the pen too. "She _needs_ me. I don't know if my powers work on animals either, but I have to try. You _have_ to find that pen, okay? I can't let her die."

"Why her in particular?"

"Oh come on, you can't tell me you don't know." Reflekta stood up and tried kicking at the wall of the box. It didn't budge.

"It's indestructible," Evillustrator said. "Only if I can find my pen so I can erase it, then we can get out of here..."

Reflekta suddenly turned round and aimed her mirror straight at Evillustrator. "Well hurry up and find it! Find it right now! If you don't find it in the next minute I'll... I'll... zap you!"

"But then you'll never get Princess Fragrance back..."

"Shut up! Keep looking!"

Evillustrator sighed and carried on searching through the grass. He could feel his concentration slipping away. It was like someone had filled his head with sand. How was he supposed to find the pen like this?

 

Meanwhile, something rather interesting was going on outside the box. A screen had suddenly appeared in the sky - just about mostly visible through the pigeons. Lady Wifi was there, speaking into the camera directly to the villains.

"Career team, as you call yourselves, I know you're there and I know you can see me!"

Antibug swung herself up on top of Evillustrator's box, where she was a little safer from attacks. "Yeah, what do you want?"

Lady Wifi held up a long, thin knife that seemed to have been whittled from a fish skeleton. "I'm in the three storey building in the North Eastern Sector. I want Timebreaker to get here within the next two minutes so I can have a little chat, or else I'll kill Bubbler." She turned the camera to show Bubbler in the corner of the room, tied up in what looked like spaghetti strings. Striding over to him, she held the knife under his chin. "Better hurry up, or Bubbler's life will end soon."

"You wouldn't," Antibug said.

"I would."

"But there's no way that Timebreaker can get all the way there in two minutes anyway."

"Well then, she'd better get time travelling! I'm waiting!"

Antibug peered over the edge of the box at Timebreaker. "You heard that, right?"

"Yeah," Timebreaker replied, killing three pigeons in a row. "I'll just... I'll time travel, I guess..."

Up until this point she had mostly been trying to get the animals out of her way rather than killing them too much, trying to aim for Animan and Mr Pigeon instead so that they could be de-akumatized, but now she killed everything within her reach to get the energy she needed for time travelling. This included Copycat, who happened to get in the way.

"Do you want my energy too?" Antibug asked, jumping down from the box.

"No, it's fine," Timebreaker said. "But... do you seriously think Lady Wifi has the guts to kill Bubbler? Aren't they..."

"You don't believe me?" Lady Wifi asked, up on the screen. "Shall I demonstrate?" She pushed the tip of the knife slightly into the red plastic over Bubbler's neck. Though Bubbler's mouth was covered in spaghetti and he couldn't speak, his terrified eyes were clear to see.

"Is this a trap?"

"I wouldn't tell you if it was, would I? Anyway, you don't have a choice. Less than 20 seconds now. If you don't want Bubbler to die, you'd better be here. Oh, and alone, too."

"Maybe you really should go," Antibug said. "Anyway you already killed Copycat, you may as well."

"Okay, fine, I'll be there soon," Timebreaker muttered.

"Good, because your time's up," Lady Wifi said. "And so is Bubbler's."

"Alright," Antibug said, "let's see you kill him then. I won't believe it until you do." She grabbed Timebreaker's arm. "Timebreaker, wait a second and watch this."

On the other side of the screen, Lady Wifi gulped. She had hoped it wouldn't come down to this - she really had hoped Timebreaker would leave before time was up, even though she knew that was unlikely. But it was okay. Even if she did kill Bubbler, he would be alright in the long run. Maybe not in this timeline, but in another timeline. He would be fine. _Nino_ would be fine.

Lady Wifi tried to stop her hands quivering. She had to look strong, or otherwise the plan would never work. Now, how to make this as painless as possible? She had no idea. Maybe as long as she made it quick, that would be alright. Or perhaps if she cut an artery somehow and just let him faint and bleed out. Hopefully that wouldn't hurt him too much.

"Well?" Antibug said. "Are you going to, or should we just get Timebreaker to go back in time and stop herself from killing Copycat, since clearly this is a waste of time?"

Steeling herself, Lady Wifi closed her eyes and thrust the knife into Bubbler's throat. _It isn't Nino,_ she told herself. _It isn't him. It's Bubbler so it doesn't count. Nino will be fine. He'll be fine. He'll be..._

She made sure she was facing the camera again before opening her eyes. She really didn't want to look at what she'd just done. "Alright, do you believe me now? I told you so."

"Yes, fine. Okay Timebreaker, off you go."

Timebreaker quickly skated away from the area, trying to get to flatter ground where she could reach the speed she needed to in order to go back in time. To tell the truth, she wasn't really sure if she had enough time to make it. Killing animals really didn't give her much energy at all. Maybe she should have killed Antibug too. But then again, she didn't really seem to enjoy killing people after what had happened with Pharaoh.

She was already in the Northern Sector before she had enough momentum to time travel, so she did. She just hoped she had managed to go back far enough.


	18. Chapter 18

Lady Wifi held up a long, thin knife that seemed to have been whittled from a fish skeleton. "I'm in the three storey building in the North Eastern Sector. I want Timebreaker to get here within the next two minutes so I can have a little chat, or else I'll kill Bubbler." She turned the camera to show Bubbler in the corner of the room, tied up in what looked like spaghetti strings. Striding over to him, she held the knife under his chin. "Better hurry up, or Bubbler's life will end soon."

"You wouldn't," Antibug said.

"She would," Timebreaker said, bursting through the doors of Lady Wifi's hideout. Phew - she had managed to get here in time.

"I'm glad to see you've made it," Lady Wifi said to Timebreaker. "Now killing Bubbler won't be necessary."

"Yeah, so please don't kill him this time."

Antibug frowned at the screen. "Wait, are you saying she really did kill Bubbler in another timeline?"

"Yeah, she stabbed him in the neck."

"Wow... I must say, I'm impressed, Lady Wifi. I thought you'd be a sap when it came to someone like him."

Lady Wifi cleared her throat. "Anyway, you had better get back to de-akumatizing Mr Pigeon and Animan while I have a chat with your friend here." She disconnected the camera, leaving Antibug to carry on the battle with her remaining teammates.

As soon as the camera was off, she ran over to Bubbler and started frantically pulling off the spaghetti strings. "Oh Bubbler, I'm so glad I didn't have to kill you... Listen, the plan is working, alright, and I'll never do that to you again, I swear... are you okay?"

Free from the spaghetti, Bubbler collapsed into her arms, shaking. "Alya, what the hell was all that about?"

"I'll explain everything, I promise."

"Uh, yeah, please do," said Timebreaker. "Why do you want me here, and what did threatening to kill Bubbler have anything to do with it?"

Lady Wifi sighed. "It's a bit of a long, convoluted plan, but basically I want to team up with you." She flicked another camera up on her phone and said to it, "Kung Food, you can come back now." Kung Food walked into the room a few seconds later.

"Okay, now I'm really confused," said Timebreaker.

"I wanted to talk to you without any of your teammates here," Lady Wifi said. "I don't trust them."

"And you trust me?"

"At this point, yes. I've been keeping an eye on everyone in this arena since day one - Puppeteer never actually activated my puppet before Vanisher and Rogercop destroyed it, so I've had free reign this whole time. The first thing I did was put cameras everywhere I possibly could so at least I knew what was going on. Then I tried to team up with my dad, Animan. But he... he didn't want to. He made that very clear. In a rather deadly, violent way."

"I know the feeling," Timebreaker said.

"Exactly. Anyway, after that I found Kung Food injured so I decided to team up with him. He trusted me since I'm Marinette's best friend. He used his flying dumpling cameras to access all the places I hadn't been able to yet, and we used this building as a hideout. Of course, we very quickly found out about your plan to save everyone by de-akumatizing them all. It's an excellent plan and I wanted to join from the start, but I really didn't trust any of you to carry it through to the end. Especially you and Antibug, since you're two of the more evil villains. No offence."

"Whatever."

"And my fears almost proved right. You pretty much blackmailed Reflekta and Evillustrator into joining your group, you forced Gamer into helping you, you in particular were very nasty to Evillustrator that one night when you bullied the life out of him, and then of course there was the blood fist from another timeline..."

"Oh yeah, this thing." Timebreaker looked at her hand. The stain was dark red by this time, almost brown.

"I kept looking for a sign that maybe you weren't all that bad, that maybe I could trust you enough to join your team and help you out. I came up with a plan for that and everything. I even helped you out a little, like pausing Darkblade for you when he was trying to cut that lift shaft in the Power Tower and make you fall. But you still kept being so overwhelmingly villainous all the time, that I really was starting to lose hope. I was starting to think your team would tear themselves apart and betray each other, much like the real career alliances often fall apart near the end of actual Hunger Games. And this went doubly for everyone here, since we're all akumatized villains. We're unstable and violent by default. I didn't think you would be able to hold in your killer instincts enough to see your noble plan through till the end - at least, I thought that way until your brother tried to kill you."

Timebreaker didn't say anything. She'd had a feeling Lady Wifi was going to bring that up again, and she didn't want to think about it.

"In fact, I saw you in tears over it when you had just arrived from the first timeline, and then I saw you warning your younger self about it and telling her to stay strong. Clearly it was something that really affected you. You went through the same thing as me - a family member tried to kill you, and you didn't even realize how much you cared about them until it happened. Anyway, since you clearly were more than just an akumatized killing machine now, I decided that I would trust you, and that I would enact my plan to join your team."

"So your plan was to kill Bubbler to get me over here so you could tell me all this?"

"Kind of. I trust _you_ , but not the other members of your team, so I needed some way to speak to you on your own. I knew if I called you here at a time when the rest of your team were busy, at least they wouldn't interfere. That's why I waited for the animal attack. Through my cameras I've been watching Animan and Mr Pigeon planning it in the Eastern Sector, the one that contains all the animals. They've spent the past few days gathering as many animals as they can, and Mr Pigeon used his pigeons to find out where your team were so they could organize an attack."

"Okay, fine. And you thought that killing Bubbler was the best way to get me here?"

"Sort of. I could see on my cameras that Bubbler was slowly making his way nearer and nearer this hideout, and of course I wanted to team up with him. But from watching your team, it seemed that Antibug especially frowned on things like friendship, companionship, kindness - seeing all these as weaknesses. I needed some way for Antibug to think of me as tough and strong, so that I could join the team without her or anyone else using the "Evillustrator treatment" on me, or anything like that. I wanted her to know I'm not someone to be crossed, and that if she tries to betray me and kill anyone, or if she tries to ruin everything, it won't be easy or worth it. So I had to pretend to be alright with killing Bubbler so that Antibug wouldn't think I'm soft, or a sap, or whatever she calls it. At least it worked, since she did say she's impressed with me. And Bubbler..." She turned to him. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before. But if you knew then you wouldn't be scared, and it wouldn't be believable. Antibug would see right through it. I really am sorry."

"Yeah, that is a really convoluted plan," Timebreaker said, though Lady Wifi wasn't listening at this point.

"Bubbler, I understand if you're upset with me. I just want you to know that I _do_ care about you, and I just want you to be okay. That's why I did everything. I just... I want you to escape this arena and be okay... and go back to your family and Adrien and Marinette..."

"Hey, it's... it's okay," Bubbler said softly. "I mean, I'm still shocked, but ... that plan was actually really frickin' hardcore... and we'll definitely see Marinette and Adrien soon..." He hugged her close.

"Ahem," said Timebreaker. "I'm still here, by the way."

"Oh ... yes..." Lady Wifi stepped back from Bubbler.

"And yeah, I don't really care if you team up with us, that's fine with me. Since Antibug's impressed with you I guess she'll be fine with it too. And if you're going to team up with us, then you should probably come and help sort out the animal attack before anyone dies."

"Alright, but I had something else to say too. I was going to ask you... do you trust Antibug?"

What an odd question - Timebreaker hadn't really thought about it much. Two days ago she would have definitely said no, but things had changed so much in the past 24 hours. She thought about how in the previous timeline just now, Antibug had actually offered to be killed for energy. _Do you want my energy too?_ she had said. It was such a big change from the earlier days, where she outright objected to it. And plus, Antibug had even woken Timebreaker up last night just to tell her she was competent, and strong, and the only other useful villain in this arena, and whatever else. Maybe Timebreaker wasn't the only villain who was feeling less murderous than usual recently.

"Yeah, I guess I trust her," she shrugged.

"Oh. Because I certainly don't."

"Why not?"

"I can't exactly tell," said Lady Wifi. "She just seems... she seems like the kind of villain who would throw someone else under the bus in an instant to get what she wants. Don't forget, she's Chloé Bourgeois under that mask and layer of evil. I just don't trust her. So I'm warning you, be alert until the end. She might throw away everything we've all worked for, just to get a chance at glory in the end."

"And another thing," Bubbler said. "If there aren't many villains left in the arena, what's the point of having too many peeps in the team? Just de-akumatize someone if they're not useful. You may as well."

"Like me," Kung Food said suddenly. "If you have no more need for my cameras, I would like to be turned back to normal."

"Fine, all points noted," said Timebreaker, "but I think the important thing right now is to get back to the animal attack and help the others. If you guys are in our team then it means there are hardly any villains left who _aren't_ , so let's work on de-akumatizing them."

Lady Wifi nodded. "Alright then, let's go."


	19. Chapter 19

The animal attack had already finished by the time Timebreaker returned from the North Eastern Sector with Lady Wifi, Bubbler and Kung Food. Most of the animals, no longer malicious, were dispersing peacefully into the woods.

"What happened here?" Timebreaker asked.

"I used my Anti-Charm and managed to finally trap Mr Pigeon and Animan, then I de-akumatized them," Antibug replied. "And I de-akumatized Copycat right in the middle of the battle. He was sneezing too much because of all the feathers. It was getting really annoying. We didn't need him anyway, he's completely useless. So, what happened with you?"

"Lady Wifi and her team want to team up with us. She knows about our plan - she's got cameras spying on everything."

"Alright, fine, she can join us if she wants. I suppose that's better than having to fight her."

Reflekta suddenly came over, furious. "Do any of you know first aid? Princess Fragrance is _dying_ and I would have loved to protect her and stop her getting hurt, but that stupid Evillustrator took forever to find his bloody pen to erase his _bloody box_ -"

"What's wrong with Princess Fragrance?" Antibug asked.

"Her arm's bleeding out, it got cut, it just won't stop - I think it's an artery - I think she's _dying_ -" Reflekta's voice was starting to break.

"Here, let's see if this works." Antibug picked up the black and red cage lying nearby and threw it up in the air. "Miraculous Antibug!"

The two Timebreakers merged into one, complete with both sets of memories now. Over in the corner of the clearing, however, Princess Fragrance still lay on the ground in a puddle of blood. Everyone ran to crowd round. Her arm really was badly cut, probably from an animal's claw or tusk, and the blood that was gushing out of the wound in spurts was _green_. The normally green skin on her face was starting to go grey.

"She's unconscious," Reflekta said, kneeling down on the ground beside her and taking her hand. "Does _anyone_ know what to do? Please? Someone? Evillustrator, can't you draw a bandage or something?"

He lifted up his hand weakly, looking rather grey too. "I think I broke my wrist. And, I also might throw up..."

"You're _useless_ ," Reflekta sobbed. "All of you. If you can't do anything, then just... j-just de-akumatize her. I can't let her die. I'd rather she turned b-back into Rose than be gone forever. She's... she's t-too precious to me..." She started crying and lay over Princess Fragrance, not even caring that she was getting blood all over her dress.

"Fine," Antibug said. She stepped around the blood puddle, picked up Princess Fragrance's perfume gun, then threw it to the ground so hard that it broke. A little akuma flew out of it, which Antibug quickly purified. A few seconds later Princess Fragrance transformed back into Rose and disappeared, leaving Reflekta sitting in the pool of green blood alone.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"Um... no problem." Antibug turned to the others. "So, uh, new teammates? Is there anything you want to say before we decide what to do next?"

"Yes, actually," Lady Wifi said. "Kung Food wants to be de-akumatized too. We may as well, since there's not much point having a giant villain team when there's barely anyone left in here."

Antibug looked tentatively at Kung Food. She remembered all too clearly back when he had tried to cook her alive in a giant pot of soup, on the roof of her father's hotel. Maybe it would be for the better to get rid of him before having a chance to interact again. "Sure," she said. Kung Food took off his chef hat and handed it to her. She tore it in half and then did what she needed to, leaving Kung Food to turn back into his civilian self and be removed from the arena.

"There's something else I wanted to talk about too," said Lady Wifi. "I have cameras in every sector of the arena, and they've recorded some very interesting things. All the footage is being collected and stored on my phone every second. Now, when I get out of here, I'm seriously hoping all that footage will _stay_ on my phone, so that I can use it to put on my Ladyblog and incriminate Hawk Moth. I can use it to show everyone what he's done to us here. It's _evidence_. Especially since once we're back to our civilian selves, we might not properly remember what happened, so at least this way we'll know. And I've noticed that if a villain is de-akumatized and they're not holding their object, it'll stay in the arena. So what I'm saying is that if I'm de-akumatized and I forget to take my phone with me or otherwise can't, _please make sure one of you brings it back_. I don't want all this evidence being lost forever."

"That's an excellent idea!" Antibug squealed. "Do you think Ladybug and Chat Noir will see it? And see how cool we all are? Do you think they'll think of us as heroes?"

"Yes, probably."

"Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's finish these Games and get out of here!"

Evillustrator tried to stand up, but his head felt so light that he sat down again. "We haven't even had _breakfast_..."

"Oh, just eat some grass or something, it's not a big deal. Anyway." Antibug cleared her throat. "There are only seven villains left in this arena right now. We are six of them. The seventh is Dark Cupid. I'd say it's time to go find him and get him out of here. And then... Timebreaker, what on earth is so funny?"

"It's just..." Timebreaker grinned. "It had to come down to a challenge between me and Kim, didn't it? It's just so typical..."

"It isn't just you, it's six of us against him - though I suppose you can treat it like one of your ridiculous challenges, if you really must. Lady Wifi, do you know where he is?"

Lady Wifi checked on her phone. "He's flying into the Central Sector from the west."

"Do you think he can be reasoned with, or do we just fight him straightaway?"

"We fight him straightaway. He's a very solitary villain and I wouldn't trust him. And like Timebreaker said, he probably really _is_ taking these Games as a challenge. He'll be trying to win properly."

Antibug stretched her arms forward. "Okay then. We should first wait five minutes for me to get my powers back. Then we go to the Central Sector and de-akumatize him, then I de-akumatize the rest of you and myself, and then we're free. Finally."

 

 

Hawk Moth was watching his screens with a stress ball in his hand. Squeezing it did nothing to make him feel any less angry. He hadn't really expected the villains' plans to work this well. He had been _sure_ they were all going to turn on each other at some point, and yet here they were, almost at the end without even a single permanent death! It was humiliating! But how to punish them? And there was also the fact that Dark Cupid hadn't done anything wrong, at least that flying idiot was still trying to play the Games normally and be a proper villain. How to punish the others without punishing him?

Hawk Moth took a look at the arena from above. The "career" team, as they called themselves, were just about entering the Central Sector. They were almost within sight of Dark Cupid. He had to think fast! What to do? How to hurt them without it affecting Dark Cupid?

It suddenly hit him. Of _course_. Dark Cupid could fly. He was up in the air. The other villains were on the ground. Not to mention, the Central Sector was full of big, crumbly buildings. It was almost too easy.

Chuckling evilly to himself, Hawk Moth pressed a few buttons on the control panel in front of him. It was time to make those villains pay for their insolence.


	20. Chapter 20

Evillustrator sat down on the side of the pavement. "Guys... I think I'm going to faint..."

"Oh come on," Antibug said, rolling her eyes. "You know what, I don't even care anymore. Let's just de-akumatize you. Your stupid wrist is broken anyway, it's not like you can help us anymore."

She started to walk towards him when she stopped suddenly, listening carefully. There seemed to be a low rumbling sound, like an aeroplane flying overhead, except that it wasn't coming from the sky. It seemed to be getting louder.

"Do you hear that?" she asked the others, who all nodded. "Well it can't be Dark Cupid, he doesn't-"

An arrow whizzed past her shoulder. Looking up she saw Dark Cupid flying far above them, aiming another arrow.

"Oh good, let's get rid of him," Antibug said, but the rumbling sound was louder now, making it hard to hear her. She took a hold of her yoyo and began swinging it in a circle, ready to attack. Then, all at once, the ground swung to the side with a deafening roar, throwing everyone off balance. Antibug tried to get back to her feet but it was almost impossible now - the ground seemed to be going in every possible direction too fast to even comprehend. Up above, Dark Cupid quickly flew higher to avoid being hit by one of the taller buildings. Looking down at the chaos, it looked almost like the ground was rolling in waves, screeching like a noisy train as it did so. He couldn't even tell what was happening with the other villains. It was impossible to tell _anything_.

_Huh, an earthquake,_ he thought to himself. _I am so glad I can fly right now_.

Meanwhile on the ground, the cars were rolling around like toys and the buildings were starting to fall apart, dropping large bits of debris with no warning. Bubbler tried to bubble his teammates to protect them but he couldn't aim right, and he could barely even see them properly, since everything kept moving around so fast. He just quickly bubbled himself and let his bubble be buffeted around by the shockwaves, hoping this would end soon and that everyone would be okay.

Lady Wifi was just about to try throwing a pause button onto the ground from her phone, when a particularly violent slip led to her dropping her phone. It flew out of her hand and landed hard on the ground too far away to reach, cracking the screen. Sure enough, the akuma flew out of it and started fluttering away.

"No no no no no no!" Lady Wifi tried to get to her phone and grab it before she inevitably disappeared from the arena, but a fissure in the ground began opening up in the space between them. It was no use. Falling to her knees, she transformed back into Alya and vanished.

Antibug, clinging onto a nearby lamppost, had seen what had happened and was determined to get Lady Wifi's phone - or rather, Alya's phone now. She jumped off the lamppost and ran towards it, leaping over the widening fissure. She took out her yoyo and tried to purify the akuma along the way, but it was just impossible to aim. In a few more seconds the akuma had vanished too - taken back by Hawk Moth.

A building halfway down the street collapsed into a pile of rubble. The dust went everywhere, making it impossible to see anything. Antibug frantically tried to search for the phone, but she couldn't tell where it was anymore. She could barely even tell which way was up or down. None of her team were anywhere to be seen. There was a creaking sound from above her, and she looked up to see that the building in front of her was toppling over right onto her. Crouching down, she held the yoyo above her head and swung it round in a circle so fast it made a protective shield. Hopefully that would work. Closing her eyes, she waited for the impact.

The building crashed down around her. Her yoyo shield managed to protect her from most of it, but the force felt like it had shattered her arm. She finally put the yoyo down and lay curled up in the wreckage, hoping the shaking would stop soon, and _especially_ hoping that she wouldn't die. She couldn't now. Not after she had worked so hard to get this far. Hard work wasn't something she did often, after all, but this time she had actually _tried_. It would just be unfair now if that all went to waste.

Reflekta, meanwhile, was using her "hopping around" powers to try and stay off the ground as much as possible, not that it was helping much. She had already been hit in the side by a car, and it was rather painful. She saw a speck of red and black in the sky - Dark Cupid. Holding her arm up she tried to zap him, but of course she couldn't aim anywhere near well enough to hit him. Never mind, she would definitely get him once this quake was over. All she had to do was survive long enough.

She couldn't help worrying about Princess Fragrance, though. Had they de-akumatized her quick enough? She'd practically only had seconds left to live. Where would Rose end up, anyway? Would she have quick access to medical care? Because if not, well...

Reflekta's thoughts were interrupted as she tripped over something on the ground and went sprawling into the dust. All this getting knocked around was making her feel dizzy. When was it going to end?

 

It seemed like forever before the shaking finally stopped, though it could only have been a few minutes in reality. Dark Cupid had watched the entire thing with glee. It was incredible how quickly the landscape had transformed - instead of a city now, there was only dusty ruins. He swooped down to have a look for survivors.

Reflekta stood up, her head swimming alarmingly. She knew she needed rest, but that didn't matter right now - she could see Dark Cupid _right there_ , and if she could zap him now then everyone's troubles would be over. Antibug wouldn't think of her as a coward anymore. Princess Fragrance would be proud.

She held her arm up and tried to zap Dark Cupid. He dodged at the last second, then started flying away again. Reflekta ignored the pain and ran after him, zapping at him all the way.

Timebreaker managed to stand up from the pile of broken bricks she was lying in, watching those two as they went further and further west, until they were out of sight. She wasn't quite sure how she had managed to survive, and in fact she couldn't make sense of anything that had just happened. It all seemed like a big, broken blur. But here she was, alive, with so many cracks in her helmet now it felt like she was looking at everything through a spider web. Maybe she should go after Reflekta and try to help her de-akumatize Dark Cupid... but no, she had to find her other teammates first. She had to make sure they weren't dead. After all, she wouldn't have been able to hear a cannon in all that chaos, so she would have to check for herself. And if anyone had died, then she would have to go back in time and endure that whole thing again and somehow save them...

"Oh, you're alive! Thank goodness!" It was Bubbler, now out of his bubble and running towards her. "Where are the others?"

"Reflekta's alive, she chased Dark Cupid over there, probably to the Western Sector. I don't know where the others are."

"We should start looking."

In the debris of a nearby fallen building, a hand suddenly managed to push its way out and wave at them. They ran over and helped remove the rubble, revealing Antibug there, alive and well.

"Lady Wifi's been de-akumatized," she said. "She dropped her phone and the screen cracked. I was trying to find it, but this building fell on me... Is everyone else alright?"

"Everyone accounted for except Evillustrator," Timebreaker said.

There was a cough from somewhere behind them. "No... I'm here..."

They turned around to see Evillustrator limping towards them, blood pouring from his shoulder. As soon as he reached them he slumped down onto the ground, shaking. "Please can you de-akumatize me now? I think... I feel like I'm gonna die..." He coughed again. His normal purple skin was now looking yellowish, let alone grey.

"Yeah, I can feel your high temperature from here," Antibug said. "Give me your pen, I'll help you."

Evillustrator handed the pen to Antibug, who snapped it and purified the akuma. Soon enough he turned into Nathaniel and disappeared.

"Right, where's Reflekta?" Antibug asked.

"She's fine," Timebreaker said. "She's gone after Dark Cupid. I think they're in the Western Sector."

"Bubbler, you go help her. Me and Timebreaker will stay here and look for Lady Wifi's phone."

Bubbler nodded and then went off towards the west. At least, he _hoped_ it was the west. Now that all the landmarks were ruined, there wasn't really any way of knowing for sure. He just went in the opposite direction to where the sun was and hoped that was right.

"Okay, her phone's around here somewhere," Antibug said, pointing at the fissure. "She couldn't reach it because this thing opened up, and then..."

"Do you think it'll still have all the footage she recorded on it?" Timebreaker asked.

"I certainly hope so. I don't want all this to have been for nothing." She began moving wreckage aside quickly, looking everywhere she could.

"Do you think Hawk Moth made that earthquake on purpose? Because he's annoyed at us?"

Antibug didn't answer.

"Because I'm pretty sure that's what happened... Hey, are you crying?"

"I almost _died!_ " Antibug sobbed, tearing suddenly spilling down her face. "I know that's happened before but this time I really did think I was going to die! Okay? Everything hurts and I thought I was done for. And after how _hard_ I've worked, no one would appreciate it, it would all be for nothing..."

Timebreaker didn't know what to say. She was _not_ good at dealing with crying people. Even as a civilian, that was not her strong point. But she was determined to not let this become another Evillustrator situation. Antibug seemed to trust her, so she shouldn't mess it up this time. "Uh... well, it wouldn't _all_ be for nothing. We did manage to save most people."

"But without Lady Wifi's phone, no one will remember that, will they?"

"They might remember some of it," Timebreaker said, thinking about when she had first been de-akumatized by Ladybug, and how awkward it had been to go back into school and see all the people she remembered murdering.

"Okay, fine," Antibug said, trying to wipe the tears off her face and ending up smearing dust and grime all over it. "Maybe I did a good job. But I still didn't want to die. There are people who would miss me, you know. Like Sabrina, my dad, my butler, Adrien, probably you too at this rate..."

"Well, I don't know about that-"

"Oh come on! You can't deny that we're friends at this point, can you?"

"Last night you said-"

"I don't care. You've been a much better ally to me than anyone else so far - except Vanisher, of course, but she wasn't here for very long. So just shut up and accept my friendship." Antibug carried on searching for the phone for a few seconds, but then stopped. "If the others do manage to get Dark Cupid, what then? I need to be there to de-akumatize him, don't I? Alright listen, I'm going to go find the others, _you_ find the phone, then bring it to me in the Western Sector. Or if I'm finished before you then I'll come back here and find you again, okay?"

"Yeah, fine."

Antibug stood up and was about to head to the west, when there was the sound of two cannons almost at the same time.

"What the... how is that possible?" she muttered. "None of those three even have lethal powers..."

"I'll go stop the deaths, I guess," Timebreaker said.

"Here, take my energy."

"What? Nah, it's okay, I'll find whoever the survivor is and I'll kill them instead..."

"Seriously? But what if you don't have enough?"

"I'll have enough, don't worry."

"Why aren't you killing me?"

"You... you literally _just_ called me your friend. It would be... kinda rude, I guess? I would feel bad."

Antibug smiled. "Whoa, you're actually feeling bad about killing me? Then that means we really _are_ friends! Hey, maybe when we're out of this arena, we can-"

"Don't push it," Timebreaker said, then skated off.

 

Skating around all the debris was almost impossible but she managed to make it to the Western Sector. The buildings (or what was left of them) stopped abruptly here, leading to what seemed to be a wide open desert that stretched for miles. The ground was bare orange rock. Bubbler was standing beside the bodies of what looked like two Reflektas.

"They both died!" he said to Timebreaker as she approached. "I had only just got here when I saw it. Dark Cupid has _real arrows_ , like, makeshift ones, made from twigs and stuff. He shot a really pointy one at Reflekta, and she zapped him at the same time. So now she's dead with an arrow through the heart, and he's dead because he was up in the air when he transformed into a clone, so his wings disappeared and he fell down and snapped his neck."

"So, he really did take my advice..." Timebreaker looked down at the dead body of Dark Cupid. "Well, he's losing this challenge no matter what. And Bubbler, to go back in time and save them I'm gonna have to kill you. No hard feelings." She tapped him, absorbed his energy, then skated in a wide circle around the desert area until she had enough speed to go back in time.


	21. Chapter 21

Timebreaker arrived from the future to see Reflekta and Dark Cupid furiously shooting at each other. It seemed that Dark Cupid was shooting a random mix of hate and makeshift arrows, and considering that Reflekta's lipstick had now turned black, it was safe to assume she had been hit at least once by a hate arrow. They both turned and saw Timebreaker, immediately changing targets and aiming at her instead. Well, at least this way neither of them would die. Timebreaker skated around to avoid all the shots aimed her way.

Bubbler ran onto the scene unnoticed, and quickly threw a bubble at Reflekta, trapping her inside.

"Thanks!" Timebreaker called to him.

"No problem," he replied. "Did you time travel or something? Because just now I literally just saw you at the-"

He stopped abruptly, as Dark Cupid shot a makeshift arrow at him. It wasn't a particularly pointy one and hadn't been travelling very fast, but it still embedded itself in Bubbler's cheek. He tore it out, leaving a gash out of which bright blue blood was pouring.

"Ow, that hurt!" he said, or rather, he _tried_ to say, but ended up spitting out more blood. He dropped his bubble wand and held both hands up to his face, trying to staunch the blood flow.

"You shouldn't have pulled it out," Timebreaker said, rolling her eyes. She grabbed the bubble wand and snapped it. "Just get out of here, go find Alya and tell her we're looking for her phone. If you can talk now, that is."

Bubbler turned into Nino and was taken out of the arena. The akuma from his bubble wand fluttered around a little while before being taken out too. Unfortunately with Bubbler gone, the bubble around Reflekta burst and she began shooting at Timebreaker again. Dark Cupid was no slouch when it came to shooting either, and Timebreaker really had her hands full trying to avoid shots from both of them.

After a few minutes, Antibug arrived. "Timebreaker, you time travelled?" she asked. "Did someone die in another timeline? Because I literally just spoke to you just now-"

"Yes I time travelled, now can you help me out a bit? I de-akumatized Bubbler because he was hurt and useless and Reflekta's been hit with a hate arrow and she's evil so..."

"Oh yes, of course. _Anti-Charm!_ " Antibug threw her yoyo in the air, and a big shield landed in her arms a second later. "A shield? Really? I think Hawk Moth's purposely trying to not be helpful right now."

With the shield in one hand and her yoyo in the other, she joined the battle. Her shield could deflect any attacks sent her way, but she didn't really know what else to do. She knew if she could get Dark Cupid down to the ground then at least she could de-akumatize him, and that would stop Reflekta attacking them too. Yes, that was a good plan.

Antibug threw her yoyo out and wrapped it around Dark Cupid, who was just about to shoot another hate arrow. She yanked on the string, pulling him down towards the ground, and just before he landed he let go of his bow and the arrow went flying. Antibug breathed a sigh of relief as she saw the arrow go in a completely different direction to her - and then felt the dread flooding back in when she saw that the arrow had hit Timebreaker.

"Oh no, not _you_ of all people..." Antibug already knew she was doomed before the black lipstick even took effect. Sure enough, within less than a minute, Timebreaker had killed Antibug, Dark Cupid and Reflekta without even needing to put in any effort. After all, killing was second nature to her. She had missed being able to do it so freely.

"Take that, I win!" Timebreaker said, laughing, as the bodies of her victims slowly disappeared around her. A few seconds after Dark Cupid disappeared, the hate arrow's influence left her and she became aware of what she had just done. "Oh come on, are you kidding me..." she muttered. Did she really have to use that energy to go back in time, yet again, and somehow change things? She knew she really _should_ , and yet... she was tired. So tired. Everything these past few days had been such a wild ride. She was still injured and shaken from the earlier earthquake, not to mention she hadn't even eaten anything yet today. She was getting utterly sick of being a villain and being stuck here - all she wanted was to finally go home and just be herself. Hadn't she already done so much more than she needed to? She had gone out of her way to make a plan to save everyone, despite being one of the most evil villains Hawk Moth had ever created. Was that not enough? She just wanted to leave now, she didn't want any more fighting. She wanted to see Jalil again. She wanted to just be Alix again. Maybe if she stayed here like this, she would be the winner, and finally get to rest...

But she knew she would never be satisfied with that. This was a challenge she'd set herself, wasn't it? She couldn't live with herself if she gave up now. Sighing, she used the energy she'd just gained from killing her fellow villains and went back in time once more before Hawk Moth could declare her the victor.

 

She arrived just in time to push her younger self aside, and the hate arrow safely missed her.

"I just saved everyone's life," she told her younger self. "Now I'll carry on here, you go help my other-other-self look for Alya's phone or she'll never find it."

The other Timebreaker nodded and skated away. Meanwhile Antibug had used her yoyo to pull Dark Cupid to the ground, and she ran over and took his brooch off. Throwing it on the ground and stomping on it, she purified the akuma that escaped, and Dark Cupid soon turned into Kim and disappeared from the arena.

"Aww, I kinda wanted to be the one to defeat him," Timebreaker said.

"Why?" Antibug asked her.

"He's Kim, that's why! Well, what matters is that I've beaten him, I've managed to stay in the arena for longer than him so I guess that means I win..."

"You're acting a lot like Alix, you know."

"Wait, really? I-"

Reflekta stumbled over towards them. With Dark Cupid gone she was back to normal, or as normal as she could be considering all that had happened.

"I'm... I'm so _exhausted_..." she mumbled. "I think I'm gonna..." She fell on the ground in a dead faint before she could finish speaking. Antibug leaned down and checked her pulse.

"She's still alive, just tired I suppose. We all are. I'll de-akumatize her, then." She took the jewel off Reflekta's hand and crushed it, then purified the akuma, leaving Reflekta to turn into Juleka and then vanish.


	22. Chapter 22

Back in the civilian room in Hawk Moth's lair, the mood should have been happy. Everyone should have been looking forward to being able to finally go home soon, since these awful Games were almost over. But no one was really in the mood for rejoicing. The events of today had been rather shocking - no one had expected an extremely high magnitude _earthquake_ , of all things. And villains were coming back with various big injuries that hadn't healed at all in their civilian state. Rose, for one thing, was lying unconscious in a stretcher at the side of the room with drips in her arms, being tended to by various butterflies acting as nurses. Juleka was on the stretcher next to her, either unconscious from fainting or fast asleep. No one could tell. Nathaniel sat up on the stretcher he was supposed to be lying on, casts on his hands, silently crying. He could remember _everything_. None of it was pleasant.

Otis made his way to the front, where his daughter was intently watching everything on the screens. "Alya, I need to talk to you about something..."

She turned around and hugged him. "Dad! I'm so happy to see you... Listen, I remember what you did as Animan, but it's okay, I promise I don't blame you. We were villains, it doesn't count. Jalil tried to kill Alix too, it's no big deal."

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about. I know I hurt you by my actions, I'm sorry about that. But I promise you, I was never trying to kill you. Even as Animan, I really wasn't."

"Wait... really?"

"Yes. I was just trying to keep you away, to keep you safe. Before the Games started, Mr Pigeon called me up on the phone and made an alliance. He said I'm the only one in this arena he trusts because my protection over my animals is like his protection over his pigeons, and he said he would kill everyone else on sight, even you. So in the arena I didn't want you anywhere near me, in case he found you and..."

Alya hugged her father again. "I understand. Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm... I'm so glad we're okay." She couldn't stop the tears from rolling down her cheeks.

"Your mother and sisters will be happy to see us soon," Otis reassured her. "And so will your friends Marinette and Adrien."

"Oh, I can't wait..."

In another corner of the room, Kim watched warily and kept his distance. He didn't really want to have another run in with that panther guy, that might be a bad idea... He was suddenly tackle-hugged by Max.

"Ouch! Bro, don't do that! My back really hurts!"

"Oh, sorry..." Max let go. "Did Antibug's yoyo really pull you down to the ground that hard, then?"

"Uh, what?"

"You don't remember, do you..."

"No, I totally remember! I got turned into a cool supervillain again, right? And then I did some cool stuff and probably shot some people... and..."

"Yeah, you don't remember." Max pushed up his glasses. "The important thing is that we're all safe and sound. And as soon as the Games end properly, we'll get to go home. Well... assuming Hawk Moth doesn't have something else planned for us..." The idea had only just occurred to him. What if Hawk Moth was lying? Considering how everyone had survived when they shouldn't have, what if Hawk Moth had some nasty revenge in store? Max pushed the thought out of his mind. He didn't really want to think about that. Hopefully everything would be okay.

 

Meanwhile in the arena, Antibug was feeling smug. She was _so close_ to winning now. That glory and appreciation she'd always dreamed of... it was almost hers. Her dream was about to become a reality. Chloé Bourgeois would be a hero, everyone would love her and adore her. No more classmates calling her a spoiled brat, no more Marinette making fun of her all the time, no more Adrien trying to avoid her. This time things were actually going to go right, and she wasn't going to let anyone stop her now. She was a hero, and she deserved all the glory.

She casually picked up one of the makeshift arrows from the ground, chuckling. "Well, would you look at this. It's literally just a pointy twig."

"That was my idea," Timebreaker said. "I told him to do that in the original bloodbath. I didn't think he'd actually listen, but apparently he did."

"Yeah, well. Even with these arrows I wouldn't say he's very powerful. Not like us."

" _Definitely_ not. In the original bloodbath timeline he was like... my second kill I think? Within the first few minutes, that's for sure." Timebreaker didn't really want to think about the original bloodbath, but the memories were pouring into her head without her being able to stop them. It's like her brain was trying to remind her she was supposed to be a villain. "I really was pretty ruthless, you know. I killed Guitar Villain, Dark Cupid, Climatika and Evillustrator. Like, when those last two were in their big epic battle and everything. I just... I just went up and killed them. It's almost hard to believe I really did that."

Antibug frowned. It wasn't fair - Timebreaker was only that good at killing because she was ridiculously overpowered. If she didn't have her "death touch" she would literally just be a tiny dork on skates, which wasn't very scary at all. At least Antibug was a properly powerful villain - she was just like Ladybug, after all. Better, even. She was about to win a Hunger Games, something even Ladybug had never done.

"I wonder what would have happened if I didn't stop killing everyone," Timebreaker mused. "I wasn't really sure whether to do it or not. At first I was only doing it because I knew if I didn't, then winning wouldn't be fun when I get out of here and everyone I know is dead. But you know... now I'm glad I put in the effort to save everyone. I'm glad I made that plan."

"Wait, what do you mean _you_ made that plan? I thought we made it together?"

"Actually, I uh... kind of tricked you into it. I had already decided to save everyone, that's why I went back in time in the first place, it was to stop the deaths in the bloodbath. And then I found you when I had knocked out Volpina, and I told you Lila would love you a lot if she knew you'd saved her, so you should do that with everyone, and you agreed..."

Antibug clenched her fist around the arrow. Why was Timebreaker trying to take all the credit and glory for herself? Had she really tricked her like that?

"But I'm really glad you agreed," Timebreaker continued. "I never expected to make friends with you, but here we are. It's better than if I hadn't made the plan to save everyone - because I would have just killed you instead and never got to be your friend."

"You really think you would have been able to kill me so easily?"

"I've already killed you a bunch of times so far, just not in this timeline. I mean, I shouldn't bring this up probably, but..." She held up the blood fist. "For what it's worth, I wouldn't do that again. But yeah, I think if I had just carried on killing people as normal then I probably would win. Which wouldn't be a very happy ending for anyone except Hawk Moth."

Antibug could barely contain her rage. She was about to win the Hunger Games and become a champion, and this dork was trying to play herself up as extra powerful, or the real winner somehow? "Is that right, Timebreaker?" she said through gritted teeth.

Timebreaker realized with a start how odd the name "Timebreaker" sounded to her. The name... it seemed to refer to the villain who killed first and asked questions later. The villain who killed Chat Noir. The villain who would willingly beat up someone who was already almost dead, just for fun. It seemed so strange, like the name just didn't fit her anymore. She didn't feel like the same person now as she was before. Things really had changed a lot over the past few days. "Timebreaker" just didn't feel right to her anymore.

She finally took off her helmet - it was so cracked that she could barely see out of the thing anyway. That felt so much better, so much less stifling. She ran a hand through her messy pink hair. It didn't really matter if she didn't look like a villain anymore. From her actions no one would mistake her for one now anyway.

"You know..." she said to Antibug, "I just... I just don't _feel_ like a villain anymore. I've been doing too much good stuff lately. I almost feel back to normal. I mean, more tired, obviously, but yeah... So I guess you don't have to call me "Timebreaker" anymore, if you want. That's just the stupid name Hawk Moth gave me anyway. You could just call me Alix."

Antibug was at the end of her patience. She'd had it with this goody-two-shoes, tricking her and trying to grab all the glory for herself. Enough was enough.

"Fine, _Alix_ ," she muttered. Then, using the makeshift arrow she was holding, she rammed it into the side of Timebreaker's head as hard as she could.

For a few seconds, it didn't quite sink in what had happened. Timebreaker put a hand up to the side of her face, then looked at her hand and saw that it was already covered in shockingly red blood. That was when the pain hit. She fell to her knees, the blood now running into her hair and dripping down her face.

"Did you really have to _show off so much?_ " Antibug said, standing looking over her with her hands on her hips. "About how you're so powerful and so brilliant and such a goody-goody, not even a villain? Because you're not the one de-akumatizing everyone, it's me! _I'm_ the one who's supposed to be the winner, not you! You're just a villain - don't try to deny it, you are! But I'm the one who's like Ladybug, so it's me who's saving everyone, and if you think you can just take all that glory away from me, then you're wrong because I won't let you!"

A stream of blood was running onto the ground now, pouring out of the wound. The arrow was still stuck in the side of Timebreaker's head and she wanted nothing more than to pull it out, but she knew that would make the bleeding even worse. As it was, she was already starting to feel dizzy. She could feel blood running out of her nose, her mouth... maybe her eyes? She couldn't even tell. It hurt so much that she could barely even _think_.

"And I don't think you appreciate how hard it was for me to get this far," Antibug continued, stepping back slightly to avoid the pool of blood that was forming. "At least for you, you just took it as a game, or whatever. But me? I've put so much effort into this! I have tried so hard! In fact, my whole life I've always been trying so hard to get people to like me, and somehow they still never do! But why? It's so unfair that people like you, who don't even _try_ , can just always get all the attention and love from people, while I've been actually wanting to be admired, and no one ever does. And I thought this time, maybe things could change. Maybe I could actually be the hero for once! So don't try and snatch the glory for yourself and take away what's rightfully mine, because no one will ever think you're a hero that way. You're just... ugh, you _deserve_ to die. I can't believe you tricked me into thinking I was important this whole time when you were going to just try to be the hero yourself. But now you're going to die, and _I'll_ be the one everyone loves."

Timebreaker's ears were ringing so much she could barely just hear what Antibug was saying. She coughed up a mouthful of blood. Looking up at Antibug, she muttered, "No one will _ever_ love you now." Using all the energy she had left, she took off her skate and smacked it onto the ground so hard that it broke, letting the akuma out. Then she closed her eyes and let herself lie on the ground on her side, not caring that she was literally lying in a pool of her own blood. She just hoped she would go unconscious, or die, or whatever, _anything_ to stop it hurting.

Antibug watched as Timebreaker turned into Alix and was removed from the arena. Hah - did that tiny punk really think she would win? Or that she was good enough to get all the glory and attention, even if she was the real mastermind behind the plan to save everyone? It was ridiculous, utterly ridiculous. And now she would probably die, and it would be her own fault for being so insufferable. Antibug smiled to herself, knowing that being the _true_ winner was much better. And now she really had won, and Hawk Moth would take her out of the Games. Everyone would congratulate her. They would all love her. Marinette would apologize for always going against her all the time, and Adrien would apologize for being so distant lately. The rest of the class would appreciate her so much more than they used to. They would be thankful to her for defeating Hawk Moth's plan and saving everyone.

Well... except Alix. Would she die? Did people die from getting stabbed in the head? It had certainly _looked_ serious, anyway. If she died then the classmates wouldn't be happy about that, would they? Maybe they wouldn't care too much. Alix was never really that friendly, after all. Maybe the classmates would be okay with her not being there anymore. After all, 25 out of 26 villains were safe, so that was still pretty good, right? _Right?_

Antibug could still hear Timebreaker's last words echoing around in her mind. _"No one will ever love you now."_ Was it true? Even after everything Antibug had done, would people still hate her, just because she killed one person? To be fair, maybe they would. That would be the part they'd remember, wouldn't it? They wouldn't care about all the saving she did if she also killed someone. And the classmates especially, they would be the most upset. And Alix's family. But maybe... maybe they'd forgive her?

Deep in her heart, she guessed they wouldn't. She had wanted respect from everyone, but there was no way they would respect a murderer. Sure, she was akumatized right now, but she had saved everyone else, right? She had tried so hard to be a decent person for once. She had tried to be the kind of person that people would actually like. And still... she couldn't do it. She just couldn't do it. Was she just fundamentally unlikeable? Would no one _ever_ care about her properly? Even Sabrina seemed to obey her out of fear rather than anything else, and her own father just spoilt her without paying her any real attention. Even Adrien had stopped liking her. Was she just such a bad person that she could never be good, no matter how hard she tried?

Her eyes were already red and dry from crying earlier, but the tears still started rolling again. Maybe she just was a bad person. Maybe she didn't deserve respect or appreciation, and that's why no one ever _did_ respect or appreciate her. Yes, it seemed so true. After all, it had been Timebreaker who had come up with the plan to save everyone, not her. And she only went along with it so that everyone would love her, not for any selfless reason like genuinely wanting everyone to live. Everyone would know how _shallow_ she was, how selfish, how uncaring. All because she couldn't rein in her killer instincts long enough to not stab her own friend in the head.

Antibug really was crying now. The past few days had just been the worst experience of her life, and especially today. If she had just calmed herself down and de-akumatized Timebreaker normally, she could have been so happy right now. And what did it matter, anyway? Maybe Timebreaker really was the one who deserved the glory. After all, she did come up with the plan in the first place despite being so evil, and it was thanks to her that anyone who died in another timeline got a chance to live in this one. And plus... she was Antibug's friend. To think that Antibug had actually managed to make a _friend_ , not by intimidation or flaunting her wealth, but actually by being _friendly_. It was something so new, so good, and she had hoped to continue making friends once she was out of here and back to normal. But now she had gone and ruined everything, just in one quick moment. How could she have been so _stupid?_ She regretted it so much, more than she had ever regretted anything in her life. She had ruined everything.

"I'm ... I'm so _sorry_ ," she said aloud, not knowing or caring who was listening, but wanting to make her apology known anyway. She tried to wipe away her tears, but more tears quickly replaced them. "I'm such an idiot. Timebreaker, Alix, whoever you are... my friend... I shouldn't have stabbed you. That was... that was really stupid of me. I was just being a selfish idiot, like always. And I want to change. I don't want to be like that. But it's so hard... everything these past few days, it's just been so hard to be good and do the right thing..." She fell to her knees, sobbing. The blood pool was staining her kneecaps, but she didn't notice. "I wish I had your power to go back in time and change the past because I would! I would make myself never stab you! That was just so... so _stupid_ of me... And if no one ever forgives me then I don't blame them."

She took her earrings off, then crushed them in the palm of her hand. She watched as the little akuma flew away. "I'm sorry. I don't deserve to have won." She put her face in her hands and waited. The next thing she knew, she was in a room full of her classmates and a few other people. Great - not only did she remember exactly what had just happened, but now everyone was going to ostracize her. And she deserved it.

Lila stood over Chloé, frowning. She looked at the nearest screen, then back at Chloé.

"What?" Chloé asked her. If everyone was going to start telling her off then they may as well do it now.

"Um..." Lila pointed at the screen. "You said you don't deserve to have won, but... you _haven't_ won. Look."


	23. Chapter 23

Antibug had completely forgotten that she hadn't been alone in the arena at the end - there were still two Timebreakers from other timelines, back in the Central Sector, looking through the wreckage for Alya's phone. They had indeed managed to find it, and it was in fact still connected to all the cameras Lady Wifi had set up and still filming everything all over the arena. The two Timebreakers had watched the entire thing, with Antibug stabbing her friend in a rage and then having a breakdown over it. They knew they should do something about it - they didn't even need to speak to know what the other was thinking.

_You have to go back in time and show this video recording to Antibug so she doesn't stab us. It's a better ending for her, and for us. Because if Hawk Moth merges us, we'll end up as the stabbed-in-the-head Alix since she's the oldest one. You do it, you're the one holding the phone._

_But I don't have any energy to go back in time, and there's no one left to kill._

_Should we look for animals?_

_We don't have long enough. Hawk Moth will declare us victor and take us out of the arena at any moment. Probably merge us, too, and we'll die._

_What if you killed me and took my energy?_

_But I can't, my powers don't work on myself. Only on other people. I don't even like killing people anymore._

_There has to be a way. We have to do something._

She knew she didn't have much time. Why _did_ her powers only work on other people? Why not herself? Was it a conscious thing somehow? She thought back to when she had killed people in the past and tried to figure out if it was different somehow to the way she felt about other versions of herself. Was it that she had to have the intention of killing someone to actually be able to do it? No, that couldn't be it, since she'd technically killed Chat Noir by accident. Well, she had _wanted_ him dead at the time, it was just that he'd got in the way when she was trying to do something else...

Of course, that was it. She was _akumatized_. Her powers were supposed to be used for getting revenge on other people, in order to empower herself. That was the whole point of being turned into a villain. That was why she could kill others and yet have no effect on herself - it was precisely because they were _other people_. So did that mean that if she could think of this alternate timeline Timebreaker standing in front of her as someone else, someone completely separate from herself, would she be able to kill her? She had to try.

She thought about what she had just seen on the screen - her slightly older self taking off her helmet, saying she didn't feel like a villain anymore. That was true, wasn't it? She just _didn't_ feel like a villain anymore. She barely felt any different from normal. Maybe she could use that to her advantage. She thought about this other Timebreaker standing in front of her, and all the terrible things that villain must have done. Murdering countless innocent people with no remorse at all, even on her own _birthday_ , for nothing other than a broken watch. Murdering _Chat Noir himself_ , of all people, giving Ladybug a personal vendetta against her despite usually not taking offence at the villains' actions.

Things she had done as a villain and tried to forget about were coming back to her now. She remembered pretending to fall over and asking Rose for help, only to cruelly take her energy away and laugh at her. She remembered killing Mylène, who had tripped over and had no way to protect herself. She remembered killing Kim despite the fact that he hadn't even done anything, simply because he was _annoying_. And she had even killed countless random civilians who were just walking along the streets of Paris, living their lives, not knowing that a bloodthirsty supervillain was on the loose.

That was only what she had done the first time. What about in these Games? All the people she killed in the first bloodbath. All the pigeons and other animals she had killed and never been able to save. All the times she had gleefully killed her team members more violently than necessary to get the energy needed to go back in time. Bullying Evillustrator so much that he lost any will to fight back at all. And of course, the time when she had watched Antibug being beaten up, and even joined in before finally killing her.

She couldn't take it anymore - she _hated_ being a villain. It was nothing but doing stupid, murderous, selfish things, and for what? Shallow revenge? For fun? Because Hawk Moth said so? She pulled off her helmet and threw it on the ground, there was no way she was wearing that stupid thing anymore, she hated it. If she looked exactly like Alix now then fair enough, since that was who she wanted to be. Not some jerk who killed people for laughs.

Seeing the other Timebreaker standing in front of her, still wearing that awful helmet, it was just too much to stand. Channelling all her anger and hatred for her villain self, she stepped forwards and hit the other Timebreaker as hard as she could. For a few seconds she wasn't quite sure if it had worked. But then, very slowly, the other Timebreaker began fading away. In a few seconds she was gone completely.

It had worked? She really _could_ kill other versions of herself? She could barely believe it was true. And looking at her wrist, she saw that she had acquired the energy needed to go back in time. All through the power of hatred.

Before Hawk Moth could do anything else, she skated away towards the west as fast as she could and then went back in time, taking Alya's phone with her.

 

 

She arrived in the past in the Western Sector not a moment too late. Her past self already had already taken off her helmet, and she could see that Antibug's hand was twitching alarmingly with the arrow in it.

"Both of you, stop right now," she said, skating up to them.

"Another Timebreaker?" Antibug asked. "Where's your helmet? Wait, did you find Alya's-"

"Yeah I found Alya's phone, I just got here from the future, and I left my helmet there 'cause I can't see out of it anymore anyway. Now listen. Antibug, don't stab me. I know you were about to. _Really_ bad idea, trust me. And _you_ , my younger self or whatever, stop being a stupid show off, okay? There's nothing good about having killed loads of people or being powerful or whatever. You're annoying Antibug. Just stop. Now both of you, look at this."

She held up the phone screen and played the recording of the events of the previous timeline. They both watched in silence, the shock showing on their faces when they saw what happened.

"So yeah," Timebreaker continued, "that is what would have happened if you had stabbed me. You would have been unhappy for the rest of your life, and I would have been declared the winner but then immediately died when Hawk Moth merged all the Timebreakers. Bad ending."

"Oh my goodness," Antibug said. "That's really... I'm ... that's going to haunt me..."

"Me too," the other Timebreaker said. "Are you telling me I was about three seconds away from being stabbed in the head?"

"I'm so sorry." Antibug dropped the arrow she was holding onto the floor. "I really _was_ going to stab you. But yeah, I see now... that would have been a terrible idea. I promise I won't do that now, I really won't. It's just... I feel like my emotions keep getting the better of me these days. I'm trying so hard to control it but I just feel so _snappy_ all the time."

"That makes sense, doesn't it? We're akumatized, so we're all violent and unstable by default. I think you've done pretty well to keep a cool enough head to get this far."

"Really? Thanks!"

"Anyway, you should probably merge the timelines now. There are _four_ of us Timebreakers at the moment, if I remember correctly."

Antibug picked up the shield from where it was lying on the ground, then she threw it up in the air. "Miraculous Antibug!" she called, for the final time. All the Timebreakers merged into one, who was feeling a little overwhelmed suddenly by all the new sets of memories she had. She was, however, quite pleased to realize she still wasn't wearing that annoying helmet of hers. Alya's phone was still in her hand.

"And now I guess you de-akumatize me, and you get to win," she said to Antibug.

"Oh, already?"

"Well yeah! You wanna go home now, right?"

"Yes, of course! It's just... after watching that video, I just feel like... do I really deserve to win? I was about to betray you, and stab you..."

"It's _fine_. I mean, remember the whole blood fist thing? I beat you up in one timeline, you stabbed me in another, I think we're even. And for the record, I apologize for beating you up even though you don't remember it."

"Hey, I just had an idea!" Antibug said, smiling suddenly. "What if we _both_ win? Like, at the same time? Wouldn't that be better? Because no one would be alive right now if it weren't for both of us."

"And that would really, _really_ annoy Hawk Moth, too. First we mess up his stupid Games, then he doesn't even get a proper winner after all that."

"Yeah, that's a great idea!" She suddenly gasped. "Wait, isn't this just like... yes, it is! It's just like in the actual Hunger Games! When Katniss and Peeta pull out the berries and they're going to eat them so there's no winner, and then they both win! It's like that!"

"Yeah I guess... You mean in a friendship way, though, right?"

"Huh? ... Oh yes ... um, friendship..." Antibug took off her earrings. "Right, are you ready?"

Timebreaker took off her skates and handed them to Antibug. "Definitely. I can't _wait_ to go home."

Antibug snapped the relevant skate, and crushed the earrings at the same time. She then used her yoyo to purify the two last akumas. "Time to de-evilize," she said, grinning. She knew she sounded nothing like Ladybug, but at least it would annoy Hawk Moth a little more. In a few seconds, they both turned into their civilian selves and vanished from the arena.


	24. Chapter 24

In the civilian room in Hawk Moth's lair, everyone was waiting to be let out now that the Games were over. So when the side of the wall began forming into a door, everyone's hopes immediately shot up. The door was flung open suddenly, letting sunlight into the room.

"Chat, I've found them! You go find Hawk Moth, I'll take care of things here!"

The girl who entered the room was unmistakeable - her red and black costume and black pigtails were iconic. There were quiet gasps from everyone in the room. Out of everyone they had expected to see here, they had never expected Paris's greatest superhero.

"ALYA!" Ladybug called, rushing over suddenly and hugging her. "I'm so glad you're okay! I... I was so _worried_... I hoped you'd be alright but I needed to see you for myself... Your mother and sisters are fine, they'll be so looking forward to seeing you again..."

"Ladybug?" Alya whispered.

"Yes, yes, it's me. Don't worry, you're all going to be okay."

"Why are you hugging me? I mean, I'm not complaining, but..."

"Oh, right." Ladybug stepped back a little, but didn't take her hands off Alya's shoulders. "I should explain what's happened. First of all everyone noticed that several people had gone missing, though we didn't know what had happened. Then Hawk Moth hacked into the Parisian TV channels and broadcasted his Games on there, so it was clear that the missing people were all of you, forced back into your villain selves and made to fight. All of Paris went completely livid - there have been protests in the streets, everything. The police have been searching non-stop for Hawk Moth's lair or arena so that we can put a stop to what he's doing. And Chat Noir and I have been searching non-stop too, keeping track of what's happening in the Games as we've been going along. In fact..."

She took a deep breath and looked around at everyone. "It's been difficult for me and Chat to keep our identities hidden when we've had to devote all our time to looking for you. I'm pretty sure all of Paris knows who we are by now. After all, if 13 out of the 15 students in a class go missing one day and turn out to be villains, then it's pretty easy to figure out what's happening when the other two, who have never been akumatized, suddenly don't show up to class anymore either."

Alya gasped. "Other two students? But that means... _Marinette?_ "

"Yes, it's me! I wish I could have told you sooner, but I had to keep my identity a secret... And yes, Chat Noir is Adrien, it's crazy, right? I have so many things to talk to him about now. But we really haven't had time to focus on that yet. The most important thing is making sure you're all okay."

Ladybug, aka Marinette Dupain-Cheng, stepped back, into the centre of the room. "I want to say that I'm so, so proud of everyone. You've done such an incredible job to make it this far, despite what Hawk Moth has put you through. No one even expected for a second that more than one person would make it out alive. But you've really pulled through. Everyone in the "career" team, thank you for taking the effort to save everyone, I know that really can't have been easy. Especially Alix and Chloé - you've really had quite an interesting few days, huh?"

"It's been _awful!_ " Chloé said. "I can't believe I even _remember_ most of it!"

"I think it's gonna be a while before I go rollerskating again," Alix muttered.

Chat Noir suddenly ran into the room. "My lady, Hawk Moth's gone. I found the room where he was controlling the arena from but it's empty. I have no idea where he went. Should we hunt him down or is it too late for now?" He suddenly saw Nino in the crowd, and he rushed forwards to hug him. He stopped suddenly at the last second, seeing the big bandage on Nino's cheek. "Oh, Nino... I've missed you so much... I'm really glad you're okay. Listen, I wish I could have told you earlier but I'm actually Adrien-"

"I know," Nino tried to say, though it was difficult with a hole through his cheek. Hopefully that would heal soon. Chat Noir carefully wrapped his arms around his friend, trying to make sure he didn't touch the injury.

"I'm sorry I couldn't protect you... I'm just so happy you're _alive_. I'm so happy everyone's alive."

"Exactly," Ladybug said. "What gives me hope is that despite the odds very much not being in anyone's favour, you've all made it. This kind of attitude, this kind of determination and perseverance that you have, _even as akumatized villains_ , gives me hope that Hawk Moth will be defeated some day. That the citizens of Paris are all amazing people. You're all heroes, alright? And I swear that Chat Noir and I will do everything in our power to find Hawk Moth and bring him to justice. But for now, you all need to be taken home to rest. Or to hospital, if you need medical attention. You're all going to be okay." She wiped a few tears away from her eyes.

"Those of you who can, follow me, I'll show you the way out," Chat Noir said. "For the rest I've already called the police and medics who'll be here soon." He began leading the survivors out of the room while Ladybug stayed to attend to the rest.

 

Somewhere far away, Hawk Moth held a little memory device in his hand. He had managed to take it with him before he fled his lair when he had realized Ladybug and Chat Noir had found him. It might have been a good opportunity to take their Miraculouses, if he hadn't been so sleep-deprived and tired at the time. Instead he escaped with his life, his kwami, and his memory device. He had uploaded his other arena designs onto there, so at least not everything had been in vain, even if those stupid villains had ruined all his beautiful plans for a normal Hunger Games. He decided he would lie low for a while, trying not to draw attention to himself, and let everyone return to their normal lives. But then... oh yes, then he would get his revenge. He would make them all pay for what they had done.

**Author's Note:**

> That was the only time I've ever written a fanfic, but it was super fun to write so thank you to everyone who read it! Please leave a comment and tell me what you think, if you want to! Anyway, I might do a sequel... ;)


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